Following the major cyber-attack in late 2023, 2024 saw us bring back interim versions of a number of our key services, including:

• an online version of our catalogue;
• remote ordering of print items to our Reading Rooms;
• our entire print collection – including newspapers – accessible to Readers
• the first 1,000 digitised manuscripts available to explore online.

The damage caused in the attack was extensive, and our recovery continues to be underpinned by the need to rebuild our infrastructure safely and securely.

We have also recently published more digitised manuscripts, this time items that recently appeared in our exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, and have made the British Newspaper Archive available again in our Reading Rooms.

Over the next year we’ll continue to restore systems and services, and you can find a list of all of these and their status on our website. We’ll update this list on an ongoing basis with service improvements and restoration dates.

Planning a visit?

If you’re planning to visit us for your research, we recommend checking what’s available before you come. If you need any help, you can ask our Reference team via live chat, email or in person in our Reading Rooms. They can help you find collection items, place requests, and advise on the availability of the services you need.

We know this has been disruptive to our users, partners and supporters, and we really appreciate your understanding as we continue work to restore all our services.

Our Learning team has been celebrating World Book Day® 2025 with thousands of children from across the UK, and the help of Michael Rosen along with other special guests from the world of books and stories.

World Book Day 2025: Read Your Way 

Books are our bag here at the Library, and we celebrate them every day. So, when we get the chance to join World Book Day’s mission to give every child access to books, and encourage reading for fun, we’re ready to go. 


This year World Book Day are putting children’s voices first with their campaign, Read Your Way, encouraging everyone to let go of pressure and expectations, to give children a choice – and a chance – to enjoy reading.  

Our Learning team has been supporting schools and families to take part and exploring the many ways we can engage with stories and books. 

More information about World Book Day can be found at worldbookday.com along with free materials and activities. 

Over 100,000 school children joined Michael Rosen and friends online 

More than 100,000 children from over 1,700 primary schools across the UK signed up to join our termly Discovering Children’s Books livestreamed event for key stage two students. This term, the session, Global Tales of Nature, was all about exploring nature-related mythology and traditional stories from around the world, supporting reading and writing for pleasure in celebration of World Book Day. 

Children's authors and storytellers including Michael Rosen, Sandra A Agard and Emily Hanna Grazebrook told engaging tales and offered prompts for children to start penning their own stories of nature. Illustrator Allen Fatimaharan led a live draw-along and gave participants tips on how to illustrate their stories. 

Michael and Allen answered questions from students and talked about different ways to start reading and writing creatively. Allen shared ‘I wasn’t very good at reading when I was little, so I think pictures really helped me get into stories, and made me want to read them.’ 

By following instructions on our dedicated activity page, children can create their own story books and enter our prize draw, getting the chance to win book tokens for their classroom as well as a handwritten letter responding to their work from story expert, Michael Rosen. 

We visited classrooms in Leeds and Camden to get creative with English lessons 

Our Schools team visited 13 key stage one classes in primary schools in Leeds, and a further 13 on our doorstep in Camden for lively workshops developed using the Open University’s Reading and Writing for Pleasure: Framework for Practice. For many, finding the right book to read can be challenging. Using a fun, interactive gameshow format our team helped children to learn the skills they need to make great book choices, supporting their motivation to read independently for pleasure in the future. All participating schools were gifted the five books featured in the workshop. 

Ingram Road Primary School in Leeds said: 'Liz really ignited the passion for reading with our children. They were really excited when talking about different genres of books and are already enjoying reading the wonderful and engaging stories. Their favourite story was Chapatti Moon by Pippa Goodhart, and we are using this text for our World Book week activities.' 

Families got stuck into hands-on workshops 

Under 5s and their families joined us at the Library for a morning of fun, in three creative workshops which celebrated the importance of diverse role models and the many ways to enjoy books and stories. 

Storyteller Ruth Montgomery delivered a musical workshop exploring different types of books through sign, music and play in a session supported by British Sign Language interpretation. 

Maria, parent, said of the session: 

'It was a real adventure! My daughter was really engaged with the mixture of music and storytelling. And it’s great that it’s free. We’ve been looking for things that involve sign for her, but there isn’t a lot out there, especially something free.' 

Author and former CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell led an interactive story-reading of her book Mermaid, then participants brought the characters to life and created their own swimming mermaids. 

Children experienced the immersive Buster Finds His Beat, an interactive story using augmented reality, with author Pamela Aculey. They then experimented with materials to make their own drum, to use for making their own unique beats and rhythms. 

Celebrating books and stories all year round 

Our Learning programme supports children to engage in the wonderful world of books and stories, in their many forms, throughout the year.  

Head of Learning at the Library, Alex Whitfield, said: 

All year round we support schools and families through our diverse programme of free events, workshops and resources, to foster a love of reading, writing and learning for pleasure in children. We’re delighted to celebrate World Book Day’s annual campaign, which positively impacts children across the UK. 

You can find out more about what’s on for schools and families on our Learning page. 

Su and John went to the British Library for one of their first dates. When they got married this year, they arranged to have wedding photographs taken at the Library. Su is in PR and John is a consultant.  

Su 

We went to a British Library Late event, the Algorave, on one of our first dates. I was a Library Member, so I saw that the event was happening and I invited him. In the end, we didn’t spend too much time at the rave because there were so many other things going on at the Library. We actually spent quite a bit of the evening in the Treasures Gallery, and by the time we got onto the dance floor, it was almost the end of the night. One of the reasons I remember that date so clearly was because I felt we were getting a bit more serious about each other.  

That was back in 2019. We got married in late March in 2024. After he proposed, we went to the Library’s Fantasy exhibition. I was really looking forward to that exhibition as well, so to be there, engaged, wearing my new ring, made it very memorable. John saw an edition of The Hobbit on display that he had when he was a kid.  

We took wedding photos at the British Library 

The reason I invited John to the Library event in the first place was that early on, we discovered that we had a shared love of books. I did English Literature for A-Level and I love fiction. At that point, John was new to London, and he was very keen to explore the city. I had been here for close to ten years, and I’d become a bit blasé about what was available. The fact that he was interested made me interested too.  

We had a small wedding at Abney Park in Stoke Newington. In the middle of the park there’s a chapel; I think they only finished refurbishing it in January 2024. The day of the wedding was quite hectic: we crammed a lot in. We took wedding photos at the Natural History Museum, at a bookshop on Charing Cross Road, in Chinatown and at the Library. Our whole relationship has been based around these key spots in London. Even though I had nice heels on, I only ended up wearing them for five minutes, for the photos, and then I was just running around with my sneakers on. 

The Library is a meaningful place for us 

I had two bridesmaids, one of whom I’ve known since my first day of secondary school. Her sister played the guitar as we walked down the aisle: ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys. Another friend baked the wedding cake. I’m glad I got my wedding dress second-hand, because the weather was awful; it was very muddy in Abney Park and it was a long dress. But because I hadn’t spent too much, I wasn’t very worried about it.  

The Library is a meaningful place for us. I think it’s quite special that there is this kind of resource in London, a national library where you can go and see exhibitions, or hang out. London will be our home for the next few years; there’s still a lot that we want to do and see here. For now, we’re just enjoying being married.  

John 

Our date at the Algorave might possibly have been my first visit to the British Library. Since then, we’ve been there a lot; we often go to see the temporary exhibitions. We decided to do a photo shoot there on the day of our wedding because it’s a special location for us.  

We have a lot of interests in common; we love photography; we like to read. We travel a lot; we go to a lot of exhibitions; we see shows; we really take advantage of the opportunities that London has to offer. The pandemic put our relationship to the test, and it’s come out pretty well because we’re married. We’re still enjoying the same things that we always have.  

We went to see the Fantasy exhibition, which felt appropriate 

I think we had a strong bond from the start. Our birthdays are in the same week, and shortly after our first set of birthday celebrations, Su became ill with appendicitis. Of course, I brought her stuff while she was in the hospital, and that’s when the relationship became more serious.  

I proposed at Sketch, a restaurant in Mayfair. The Christmas decorations were up, so it looked like a wintry fantasy paradise. Afterwards, we went to see the Fantasy exhibition, which felt kind of appropriate. I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction when I was younger.   

I’m happy with the life we have in London 

I think we were one of the first marriages at the chapel in Abney Park since the refurbishment. It’s a non-denominational Victorian chapel with a mix of architectural elements; it’s a big folly, basically. It was pretty terrible weather on the day, but the green setting was important to us; we do a lot of hiking together. Afterwards, we had dinner at the pub next door; it was very much a neighbourhood affair. We went to the Cotswolds for our mini-moon.  

Being based in London, with access to so many different cultural activities, is still very exciting. I’m happy with the life that we have here. There’ll be kids down the line; for the time being, we’re just having a good time.  

As told to Lucy Peters