British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is the world's largest research library, holding over 150 million items and adding some 3 million every year. As of March 2004 the library holds 11.2 million monographs and receives more than 41,500 serials.

Highlights of the collections

• The Stein collection from Central Asia.
• The Diamond Sutra, claimed to be the world's oldest dated printed book
• The Lindisfarne Gospels
• Two Gutenberg Bibles
• Two 1215 copies of Magna Carta
• Papyrus Egerton 2, the Egerton Gospel
• The only surviving copy of the poem Beowulf