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British Library
Facts and Figures
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest libraries.
* We receive a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland
* The collection includes 150 million items, in most known languages
* 3 million new items are incorporated every year
* We house manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents
* The Sound Archive keeps sound recordings from 19th-century cylinders to the latest CD, DVD and minidisc recordings
* We house 8 million stamps and other philatelic items
* These require over 625 km of shelves, and grow 12km every year
* If you see 5 items each day, it would take you 80,000 years to see the whole of the collection
* The earliest dated printed book, the Diamond Sutra, can be seen in our exhibition galleries alongside many other national treasures
* We have on-site space for over 1,200 readers
* Over 16,000 people use the collections each day
* Online catalogues, information and exhibitions can be found on this website
* We operate the world's largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world
Nearest Tube :
Euston or Kings Cross
Lindisfarne Gospels in the British Library |
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