We’re currently experiencing a major technology outage due to a cyber-attack. 

However, most of our in-person and online events for schools in St Pancras and Leeds are going ahead.  

Workshops in London 

The Library in St Pancras remains fully open and we’re continuing to welcome schools as usual.

To book a free visit or find out more information, please email [email protected]. Booking is essential. 

Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition workshops
Until 23 February 
English, English Literature | Primary: Years 3 – 6 / Secondary and FE: Years 7 – 13 

This workshop will lead your group through our major exhibition, Fantasy: Realms of Imagination. Along the way students will analyse the conventions of the fantasy genre and create their own narratives. 

Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories exhibition workshops 
Primary: Years 3 – 6 / Secondary and FE: Years 7 – 13 

Celebrate one of Britain’s most read authors in our latest exhibition. Tailored workshops with our Learning Facilitators will take students on a tour of the exhibition and explore the creative process behind Malorie Blackman’s writing. 

Self-guided visits
60 minutes | Primary: Years 3 – 6 / Secondary and FE: Years 7 - 13 

These flexible visits enable you to lead your group to explore public spaces and Treasures Gallery. We provide a printed resource to support your visit with activities for learners and information about the Library for teachers. 

Making Artists’ Books
90 minutes | Art and Design | Primary: Years 3 – 6 / Secondary and FE: Years 7 – 13 

Learners will make their own artists’ books in this hands-on workshop. They will discover what an artist’s book is and why they are made. 

Exploring Sacred Texts
90 minutes | Religious Education | Primary: Years 4 – 6 / Secondary and FE: Years 7 – 13 

This workshop explores the richness and diversity of sacred texts from different religions. Learners will look at special texts on display in our Treasures Gallery and engage with items from our digitised collection.  

Once upon a Time: Tell a Story
60 minutes | English, Literacy | Primary: Years 1 – 2 

Students take a well-known story and develop storytelling skills through performance, strengthening their literacy and language skills. These sessions have been made possible thanks to support from Old Possum’s Practical Trust. 

Once upon a Time: Make a Story
60 minutes | English, Literacy | Primary: Years 1 – 2 

Students will create a new story as a class, developing their literacy and language skills through imaginative play. These sessions have been made possible thanks to support from Old Possum’s Practical Trust. 

Listen Up! Dive into Sound
90 minutes | English, Literacy, Cross-curricular | Primary: Years 4 – 6 

Hear recordings from our sound archive, from environmental sounds and speeches. This workshop explores how sound can transform a space and capture the imagination. 

Listen Up! Sound Lab
90 minutes | Music, Cross-curricular, Well-being | Primary: Years 4 – 6 

Students use a range of techniques to create, collect, amplify, mix, layer and record sound in this hands-on session. 

Research Matters
90 minutes| Information Literacy, Cross-curricular | Primary: Years 5 – 6 

Information literacy, investigation, observation, questioning and source analysis techniques feature in this workshop on research skills. 

Voyage into Maps
90 minutes | Geography, Art and Design, History | Primary: Years 3 – 6  

Students will explore maps on display in our Treasures Gallery, thinking critically about their many uses and styles. 

Windrush Voices
90 minutes | History, English Literature | Secondary and FE: Years 10 – 13 

This session explores the arrival of the Empire Windrush in Essex in 1948 and the wider social and historical context of this moment. Students will investigate the experiences of Caribbean immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Exploring Black British Literature
120 minutes | English Literature | Secondary and FE: Years 10 – 13 

Explore the rich history of Black writing and literature in Britain. Students will reflect on the plurality of themes in a variety of Black British texts using digitised manuscripts and recordings from our collection. 

Sounds Familiar?
90 minutes | English Literature | Secondary and FE: Years 10 – 13 
Also available as an online workshop 

Uncover ways of analysing speech, accent and dialect. This session explores language change and variation, and regional vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar in the UK. 

Develop Your Writing: RLF Bridge
All-day session | History, English Literature, Cross-curricular | Secondary and FE: Years 12 – 13 
Also available as an online workshop 

This one-day workshop will improve students’ confidence in academic writing. Run by Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellows. 

Workshops and experiences in Leeds

Workshops and experiences in Leeds are still available. Scheduled bookings in Leeds will go ahead as planned. 

To book or find out more information, please email [email protected]. 

Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens
At Temple Newsam 
All-day session | History | Secondary: Years 7 – 11 

Experience Tudor life and explore the turbulent relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Find out more on the Temple Newsam website. 

Write Like a Poet 
Delivered in your school. Exclusive to LS postcodes. 
English, Literacy, Drama | Primary: Years 3 – 6 

Learn new ways to tell stories through poetry. Respond to poems by James Berry, Grace Nichols and John Agard in this creative writing workshop.  

Graphic Novels Dramatised
Delivered in your school, exclusive to LS postcodes 
English, Literacy, Drama | Primary: Years 3 – 6 

Use drama to share stories in new ways. Explore the story and issues behind Sarah Garland’s graphic novel, Azzi in Between, in our interactive drama workshop.  

Sounds Like a Story
Delivered in your school, exclusive to LS postcodes 
English, Literacy, Drama | Primary: Years 3 – 6 

Explore the role of sound in storytelling, with Sally Pomme Clayton and Amin Hassanzadeh Sharif’s The Phoenix of Persia. Pupils will be introduced to vocal percussion and sound effect techniques. 

Step Inside Your Story

Our competition to win £50 of National Book Tokens for your school remains live until its scheduled close at 17.00 on 4 December 2023. Children are invited to make books about themselves. Adults can share children’s creations on X (Formerly Twitter), tagging @BL_Learning, or send photos by email to [email protected].  

For inspiration please watch our videos: 

• Step inside your story, introduction with Joseph Coelho
• Make a concertina book, with Mara the storyteller.

Please contact us at [email protected]: 

• For information about the prize and how we decide the winners
• To request a copy of the competition terms and conditions.

Contacting us

While our systems are offline, you can contact the Library by emailing [email protected].  

This mailbox is checked between 08.30 to 16.30 Monday to Friday. Please note, however, that the Library is receiving a very high volume of enquiries at the moment. Please bear with our Customer Services team who will respond as soon as they can. We’d like to thank all of our users and partners for your continued understanding.

We’re continuing to experience a major technology outage following a cyber-attack affecting our website, online systems and services, and some onsite services. However our buildings are still open as usual. Wi-Fi is available again at both sites, and we can also take card payments onsite at St Pancras. We anticipate restoring more services in the next few weeks, but disruption to certain services is expected to persist for several months.

Last week the attackers released some of our data onto the dark web including some personal user information. We’ve contacted our users to alert them to this incident and to offer advice from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on how to protect themselves, including updating their passwords on other systems.

Because our systems are still unavailable, you can’t change the password for our services. However, if you use the same password for non-British Library services, we recommend that you change it as a precaution.

The NCSC provides guidance on staying secure online, including how to create a strong password, and specific guidance for individuals who may have been impacted by a data breach.

Analysing the data is likely to take several months. Should we find specific information has been compromised, we will alert anyone affected as soon as we can. We are continuing to collaborate with the Metropolitan Police and professional cybersecurity advisors, and are receiving support from the NCSC.

We’re really sorry for the ongoing disruption to our systems and services and we’ll provide further updates when we can.

What is currently available?

The Library’s buildings are open and the following services are available onsite:

• Reading Rooms (for personal study)
• Access to collection items that had been delivered for consultation in the Reading Rooms on or before 28 October; this excludes collection items that had been ordered in advance for consultation after 28 October
• Access to collection items held on the open shelves in the Reading Rooms
• Limited access to the collection items via manual ordering. The collection items available to order in our St Pancras Reading Rooms only include the general collection items stored at St Pancras (special collection items are not available). You can order these by completing the paper forms available in the Reading Rooms. You can consult the printed catalogues in the Reading Rooms, Jisc Library Hub Discover or WorldCat to find items in our collection, however, some may currently be unavailable
• Reader Registration – we can only issue temporary passes. Anyone needing to renew or get a new Reader Pass should visit Reader Registration to be issued with a temporary pass, this includes anyone with an expired pass, those who have pre-registered online or new Readers.
• Public Wi-Fi – available in most public spaces including the Reading Rooms, as well as our study desks and galleries at St Pancras (you won’t need a login)
• Our onsite cafés, restaurant and shops, which accept both card and cash. You can also still access our online shop.

Anyone who has previously purchased tickets for our new exhibition, Fantasy: Realms of Imagination, can still use them. Exhibition tickets can now also be booked via See Tickets or bought onsite.

Our free exhibition, Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories, and our free Treasures Gallery at St Pancras are open as usual and no booking is required.

All of our upcoming public events and our St Pancras building tours are going ahead. Read our latest blog post about planned events for more information.

Our Family Station in St Pancras is open from 10.00–12.00 every Friday and we’re continuing to welcome schools, as well as families and adult learners to our courses and access events. Explore our educational offer on our school services blog.

Other services

Our Business & IP Centre (BIPC) in St Pancras is open as usual to support businesses but digital services accessed onsite are unavailable. You can find additional business support in BIPCs within regional and local libraries across the UK. Discover your local BIPC

You can also still join BIPC events and webinars and access one-to-one support. See what’s available at the British Library in St Pancras or online and in person via BIPCs in libraries across London.

If you would like to talk to us about a new or existing digitisation project, this service is currently unavailable but we’ll update our channels as we have more information to share. Thank you for your patience.

Contacting us

You can contact us by emailing [email protected]. We’ll do our best to answer your queries but please bear with us. This inbox is reviewed from 08.30 to 16.30 Monday to Friday. We’re experiencing a high volume of enquiries so it may take us some time to respond. We’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.

We’d like to thank all of our users and partners for your continued patience and understanding.

Getting to our sites

Use the following information to find us at our sites in London and Yorkshire:

British Library

96 Euston Rd

London NW1 2DB

Nearest rail and tube stations: King’s Cross St Pancras and Euston

 

British Library

Boston Spa

LS23 7BQ

Opening times

St Pancras building opening times

This includes our public spaces, our permanent Treasures Gallery and our Entrance Hall display space, with the exception of special event days, when these areas may close earlier.

 Monday             09.30 – 20.00

 Tuesday            09.30 – 20.00

 Wednesday       09.30 – 20.00

 Thursday           09.30 – 20.00 

 Friday                09.30 – 18.00

 Saturday            09.30 – 17.00

 Sunday              11.00 – 17.00

St Pancras Reading Rooms opening times

Monday              10.00 – 20.00 (Maps, Manuscripts and Asian & African Studies close at 17.00)

Tuesday              09.30 – 20.00 (Maps, Manuscripts and Asian & African Studies close at 17.00)

Wednesday        09.30 – 20.00 (Maps, Manuscripts and Asian & African Studies close at 17.00)

Thursday            09.30 – 20.00 (Maps, Manuscripts and Asian & African Studies close at 17.00)

Friday                 09.30 – 17.00

Saturday             09.30 – 17.00

Sunday               Closed

St Pancras Reader Registration opening times

Monday –Thursday     09.30 – 17.45

Friday                          09.30 – 16.15

Saturday                     09.30 – 16.45

St Pancras galleries opening times

This includes our temporary exhibitions in our PACCAR galleries.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 09.30 – 18.00

Tuesday              09.30 – 20.00

Saturday             09.30 – 17.00

Sunday               11.00 – 17.00

St Pancras Members' Room

Monday to Thursday         09.30 – 20.00

Friday                                09.30 – 18.00

Saturday                           09.30 – 17.00

Sunday                              11.00 – 17.00

Refreshments available until 30 minutes before the room closes.

Boston Spa, Yorkshire Reading Room and Reader Registration opening times

Monday – Friday             09.00 – 16.30

Useful information

British Library social media channels

For the most up-to-date information follow us on:

X (formerly Twitter)

Facebook

Instagram

British Library events online

Catch up on our Living Knowledge Network events

British Library images, podcasts and videos

Flickr 

Images Online 

Soundcloud 

YouTube 

Research resources

To find information about items held in our collection

• Search Jisc Library Hub Discover and WorldCat for items in our collection
• Search The National Archives and The Archives Hub for descriptions and shelfmarks of our archive materials and see if versions of them can be found elsewhere.

At the moment, we are only able to offer limited access to our general collection items held in St Pancras. They can be ordered manually via paper tickets in the Reading Rooms. To find out if an item is held in St Pancras, in Library Hub Discover’s Advanced Search you can limit your search to BL St Pancras in the Library section. You can then make a note of the shelfmark and bring it to the Library. However, not everything available in St Pancras can be ordered to a Reading Room at the moment. Please check with staff when you arrive.

To access some of our digitised content

• Search HathiTrust or Archive.org for older and out-of-copyright digitised material

• Use Google Books to search a huge range of digitised content from our collection

• Search millions of newspaper articles via the British Newspaper Archives

• Explore Artstor’s digital library.

To find content from our website

• Use the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to search for archived copies of our website. Not everything will be there, and it may not be the most recent version, but if you have the URL of the webpage you want to access, just type it in to see when a snapshot was taken. If you’re not sure of the URL you need, try googling it
• Our blogs remain live, and can be accessed below:
  Asian and African Studies
  Americas and Oceania Collections
  Collections Care
  Digital Scholarship
  Endangered Archives
  English and Drama
  European Studies
  Innovations and enterprise
  Sound and Vision 
  Knowledge Matters
  Maps and Views
  Medieval Manuscripts
  Music
  Science
  Social Science
  The Newsroom 
  UK Web Archive
  Untold Lives 

• Search our open access research repository for research produced by staff and research associates of the Library
• Look at digitised collection items from around the world through our Endangered Archive Programme (EAP)
• Access digitised images of the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest surviving copies of the Greek Bible
• Gain insights into how iconic literary works were created through our Discovering Literature website, available in both English and Chinese
• Access a temporary search interface for the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), to search 150,000 pre-1700 records, many with links to Early English Books Online (EEBO) Created by Nikolai Vogler for the collaborative research project Print & Probability
• Examine 3D items from our collection
• Explore 360-degree views of writers’ rooms:
  Hanif Kureishi
  Hunter Davies
  Margaret Forster

Local library services

Find out what your local library has to offer at LibraryOn.

Our Business & IP Centre (BIPC) supports small business owners, entrepreneurs and inventors, and anyone with a business idea. Offering insights and access to free resources, training and events – both online and in-person – to help you start or develop your business.

Cyber incident update

We’re continuing to experience a major technology outage, as a result of a cyber-attack. The outage is still affecting our website, online systems and services, as well as some onsite services including Wi-Fi. We expect to restore many of our services soon, although some disruption is likely to continue for several weeks.

BIPC services currently available

The Business & IP Centre (BIPC) and Reading Room is located on Floor 1 in the British Library at St Pancras. Our staff here can provide advice on protecting your intellectual property, or guide you through turning your business idea into a reality. We also offer free access to our collections of business and intellectual property information and industry reports and insights to help you make informed decisions, and save time and money.

The Library in St Pancras remains fully open and our Business & IP Centre (BIPC) is open as usual too.

The following BIPC services are available:

• access to the BIPC Reading Room on Floor 1 – you will need a valid Reader pass to be able to access our Reading Room
• Reader Registration for new or lapsed Readers – however, we’re currently only able to issue temporary passes. The levels of access these provide may differ depending on whether you are a lapsed or new Reader
• one-to-ones offering expert advice and tailored support for whatever stage of your business journey you are at, in person or online. We cover a wide range of topics including intellectual property, funding and business planning. Please note that onsite business databases are currently unavailable and this may affect our business information clinics
• access to our free industry guides, from advertising to travel to international trade
• BIPC workshops, events and webinars at the British Library in St Pancras and online
• Get Ready for Business Growth, the BIPC's free scale-up support programme funded by Arts Council England, is also open for applications from creative businesses with £80k + turnover wishing to scale (further details about the programme are available in person).

We also have a wide range of business support on offer across our London Network and National Network of BIPC libraries:

• You can join BIPC events, workshops and webinars in person and online via BIPCs in borough libraries across London
• You can find additional business support in BIPCs within regional and local libraries across the UK. Discover your local BIPC.

Contacting us

While our systems are offline, you can contact the Library by emailing [email protected]. We’ll do our best to answer your queries but please bear with us. We’re experiencing a high volume of enquiries so it may take us some time to respond. We’ll get back to you as quickly as we can. We’d like to thank all of our users and partners for your continued understanding.

If you have specific questions relating to our business services, you’re welcome to come and speak to the Business & IP Centre (BIPC) team in person on the Floor 1 of our St Pancras site.

Where to find us: Floor 1, Business & IP Centre, British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB

BIPC social media channels

For any queries and the most up-to-date information follow us on:

X (formerly Twitter)

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Useful links

While our website is unavailable, we’ve created a list of links that you may find useful.

BIPC events online

BIPC events at the British Library in St Pancras  

BIPC events within the London Network

Find regional events using our interactive map of BIPCs around the country

BIPC videos, including past events

BIPCTV

Local library services

Find out what your local library has to offer at LibraryOn.