(16 Dec 2025) Applications are now open to join the International Library Leaders Programme at the British Library, 01-08 July 2026. With over 170 million items in our collection, from Magna Carta to Shakespeare’s First Folio, the British Library is one of the world’s largest national libraries. If you are a mid-career library or archive professional, we invite you…
(18 Dec 2025) The British Library Philatelic Collections has digitized and published one of the earliest specialist philatelic studies devoted to a single country online. The Row Collection of Siam (Thailand), 1881–1918 focuses on postage stamps, postal stationery, and postal marks from a pivotal era in Thai history. Formed by British zoologist and philatelist Richard…
(28 Nov 2024) An exhibition with the title “A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang” is currently on display at the British Library, London, until 23 February 2025. The oasis of Dunhuang, in today’s northwest China, was established in 111 BCE as a military outpost. It became a vital resting point for travellers due…
(24 Nov 2024) The British Library has expanded its Chinese collection by adding 10 online novels by Chinese authors, including Lord of the Mysteries, Soul Land, and The Joy of Life, a testament to the cultural significance and rapid development of internet literature in China. This follows the library’s 2022 inclusion of its first batch…
(19 Mar 2024) The British Library’s computer systems were recently attacked by the notorious ransomware group Rhysida. The attack led to many of the Library’s core systems remaining unavailable for months and the auction of 573GB of employees’ personal data on Rhysida’s .onion site. Though the Library is slowly recovering and has admirably published their…
(4 Jan 2024) With over 170 million items in the collection, from Magna Carta to Shakespeare’s First Folio, the British Library is one of the world’s largest national libraries. If you are a mid-career library or archive professional, you’re welcomed to apply for the fourth International Library Leaders Programme, running in July 2024. This intensive week-long…
Loss of access to EThOS archive of 600,000 doctoral dissertations causes major disruption for PhD students (4 Dec 2023) PhD students have described “stumbling through” their research after losing access to the UK’s national database of doctoral theses, as disruption to the British Library’s digital archive following a devastating cyberattack enters its third month. The UK’s national library has…
(29 Nov 2023) The British Library has told customers that their personal data may have been stolen during a recent ransomware attack that knocked the library’s systems and website offline for the past month. In a notice sent to customers this week, which TechCrunch has seen, the British Library said that its customer relation…
(14 Aug 2023) Although the Vietnamese collection at the British Library (BL) in the UK is quite small, it’s actually very important, showing that the relations between the two countries had shaped long before their official diplomatic relations were set up in 1973, according to Dr. Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator for Southeast Asia at…
(20 Jan 2023) The British Library will be running a week-long intensive professional development course for mid-career library and archive professionals on 12-19 July 2023. The International Library Leaders Programme offers a unique opportunity to go behind the scenes at one of the world’s largest national libraries, with workshops, talks and tours given by senior staff…