1. Practical pointers on how to
use the British Library
Ian Walker – Content Expert,
Science, Technology & Medicine

2. Overview:
• Introduction to the British Library
• Practical tips
• Introduction to our catalogue – Explore the British Library
www.bl.uk
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3. Getting a reader pass:
• To use our reading rooms you need a free reader
pass
• Visit the reader registration office on the UG floor.
Pre-register online to save time.
• You will need to bring two types of ID:
– Proof of address (such as a bank statement or
utility bill)
– Proof of signature (such as your passport or
driving licence)
– Business card, staff pass, professional
membership card
Please check our website – only certain types of ID
are suitable, and we can’t accept photocopies or
printouts. http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/inrrooms/stp/register/stpregister.html
www.bl.uk
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4. You’ve got your reader pass…how do you
access the reading rooms?
• When you sign up for a reader pass you must
agree to our conditions of use
• As the repository for the UK’s published
heritage we have a duty to safeguard our
collections for future generations
• Certain rules and regulations that you might not
expect...
www.bl.uk
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6. Balancing collection care and access:
• You’re responsible for all items issued to you
• Collection materials must not be taken out of
the reading room and must be returned to
the issue desk when you’ve finished with
them
• Ask staff for help and advice if in doubt over
condition of collection items and handling
and copying
• Book supports, weights and stands are
available from the book delivery counters
• Reading Rooms staff are always available to
help, if in doubt ask!
www.bl.uk
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7. The British Library Reading Rooms:
Within the St Pancras building we have 11 Reading Rooms, staffed by qualified
Reference Specialists from 9 Reference teams:
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•
•
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Science (Science 2 and 3)
Social Sciences
Humanities (Humanities 1 and 2)
Business & Intellectual Property
Maps & Manuscripts
Rare Books & Music
Sound & Vision
Asian & African Studies
News & Media (opening early 2014)
The majority of collection items can be ordered to any reading room but
some rare or valuable items can only be ordered to specific rooms
Open access material cannot be transferred to another reading room
www.bl.uk
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8. Reading Room opening times:
Mon
• Science
• Social Sciences
• Business & IP Centre
• Humanities
• Rare Books & Music
• Asian and African Studies
• Maps
• Manuscripts
www.bl.uk
10:0020:00
10:0017:00
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun &
Public
Holidays
09:3020:00
09:3020:00
09:3020:00
09:3017:00
09:3017:00
Closed
09:3017:00
09:3017:00
09:3017:00
09:3017:00
09:3017:00
Closed
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9. Collection organisation:
• Due to scale of the library, the majority of
the items we hold are in storage and
need to be ordered to the reading rooms
through our catalogue – Explore the
British Library
• Depending on the location of the
material, delivery can take:
– 70 minutes if material is held in the
basements (must be requested by
16:00 for same day)
– 48 hours if material is held at
Boston Spa (no deliveries from
Boston Spa to St P on Saturdays)
Cut away image of the St Pancras
building, showing 4 floors of doubleheight basements, which stretch down
to a depth of 25 metres. The Northern,
Piccadilly and Victoria tube lines
intersect the basements.
Take time to plan your visit to make best use of your time
www.bl.uk
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10. Science Reading Rooms:
• Different to most other BL reading rooms, open access collection
• Cover all STM subjects, material located on two floors:
Science 2 (Medicine and Life Sciences)
Science 3 (Physical Sciences and Engineering)
• 180 seats - 130 reader desks, 60 seats at PC terminals
• STM books and journals from the last 10 years on open shelves, older STM
material stored in Boston Spa and needs to be ordered via the catalogue
• Items take 48 hours – but can be ordered in advance via Explore
www.bl.uk
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11. Ordering material:
• You can order 10 requests a day
• You can request remotely - 24/7
• You can track the status of your orders using
My Reading Room Requests
• Books will be held under your name for 3
working days
• 6 items can be reserved over night
www.bl.uk
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12. Electronic Resources:
• The Library subscribes to a large number of
electronic resources : databases, e-journals, ebooks
• Due to licence restrictions only available onsite and only available on Library PCs
• There are a number of ways to find our eresources : browse A-Z journal lists, find
databases through our RR homepage or use
catalogue - Explore the British Library
• http://www.bl.uk/eresources/main.shtml
• http://explore.bl.uk/
www.bl.uk
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13. Using the catalogue:
• Explore the British Library is the main catalogue of the British Library. You can
use it to search, view and order collection items.
• Allows you search over 50 million records :
– c.14 million records for the Library's holdings of books, journals, newspapers, conferences, maps,
scores etc.
– c.37 million journal article records, from our electronic table of contents system
– Thousands of records for British Library web pages
– c.5 million records of Library's Sound Archive items
– Web Archive links (freely available on the web)
– Thousands of electronic journal and book records and hundreds of database records (most
subscribed; some freely available on the web)
– More than 450 Research datasets records (freely available on the web)
www.bl.uk
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14. Thank you
www.bl.uk
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