For the past seven years the British Library has published its gender pay gap figures on an annual basis, benchmarking our progress in this area and, over time, gradually closing the median pay gap.

In 2023 we eliminated the gender pay gap and this year’s median figure of 0.2% effectively maintains that position. We are proud of having closed the gap and remain conscious that it will require ongoing effort and vigilance to keep it so: we continue to proactively support gender equity, and you can read about specific measures in this year’s report, in the section headed ‘Our commitment’ (p.13).

In 2024, for the first time, we voluntarily published pay gap figures relating to ethnicity and disability. We will continue to publish these figures annually, with a commitment to eliminating these pay gaps by 2030, the end of our current Knowledge Matters strategy period.

Last year we published three separate pay gap reports (gender, ethnicity and disability) – this year, we have consolidated them into a single Pay Gap Report.

As publishing the ethnicity and disability pay gaps is currently voluntary, it is not straightforward to benchmark these either nationally or within our sector. However, the figures serve as a baseline for future progress, and in subsequent years we would hope to be able to chart progression over time for each of these figures (as we have been able to with the gender pay gap).

In this year’s consolidated report, the ethnicity pay gap figures show a median pay gap of 5.65% for Asian colleagues and 12.76% for Black colleagues, while the median pay gap for colleagues with disabilities was 11.47%.

These are, of course, unacceptable, and the Pay Gap Report reiterates our commitment to eliminating these disparities, along with an action plan of specific measures we are taking to address them. These include investing in career opportunities and leadership, and ensuring that tailored support and development are made available to staff at all levels.

From our experience of delivering sustained, year-on-year reductions in the gender pay gap we know the vital role of benchmarking of this kind in focusing our efforts and tracking progress. Through the measures in our action plan, and also by improving the data we gather on the different pay gaps, we are determined to deliver concrete and sustainable progress in making the Library a fair and fully inclusive place to work for everyone.

Richard Davies

Interim Director of People

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.