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.

Miscellaneous information

The library also holds the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC), Now called APAC (Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections) which contain the collections of the India Office Library and Records, and materials in the languages of Asia and of north and north-east Africa.

Related Topics:
Oriental and India Office Collections - India Office Library and Records - Asia - Africa

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The British Library participates in a project called 'Bibliotheca Universalis' which aims at publishing major works on the web. In the British Library's Digital library project collections can be toured online and the virtual pages of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks and other great works can be turned electronically. The British Library's secure electronic delivery service, started in 2003 at a cost of 6 million pounds, brings access to more than one hundred million items (including 280,000 journal titles, 50 million patents, 5 million reports, 476,000 U.S. dissertations and 433,000 conference proceedings) for researchers and library patrons worldwide which were previously unavailable outside the Library due to copyright restrictions.

Related Topics:
Bibliotheca Universalis - Web - Digital library - Leonardo da Vinci - Secure electronic delivery service - Copyright

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The use of the Library's web catalogue also continues to increase. In 2003 more than 9.7 million searches were conducted.

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