Research Resources

The British Library’s collections offer a unique opportunity for research collaboration. As the nation’s library, we receive a copy of nearly every book published in the UK, and we are custodian to a growing range of digitised and born-digital content – including the entire range of recorded sound and over 2 billion pages of UK web content.

The UK Web Archive, for which the Library provides the underlying infrastructure, gives free online access to thousands of research-relevant websites and specially-curated website collections.

We are the UK’s national patent library, a European Documentation Centre, and a depository library for international organisations such as the United Nations.

A key resource for doctoral research is our e-theses online service, EThOS, which enables researchers to access hundreds of thousands of doctoral thesis records online.

Aligned to our collections is the span of research, professional and methodological expertise that our staff provides. This encompasses: curatorial, archival, paleographic and conservation skills; experience in field recording; performance analysis; intellectual property and open access; web archiving; text and data mining, data visualisation, and all other aspects of digital scholarship.

British Library Code of Good Research Practice:  www.bl.uk/research-collaboration/policy