USING THE BRITISH LIBRARY

 

 

humcol

newbl

 

 

The British Library, Euston Road (150 yards W of Kings Cross Tube)

 

 

 

Reader’s Pass application forms can be downloaded as a pdf file from
the BL Website (www.bl.uk).
The BL has recently made it easier for students to join: nevertheless you
should check their documentation.

 

Opening Hours  

10.00-8.00pm Monday

9.30-8.00pm Tuesday-Thursday

9.30-5.00pm Friday-Saturday

 

Reading Rooms

Humanities 1 and 2

Rare Books (pre-c.1850)

Manuscripts      Maps              

Social Sciences   

 

 

Searching the Collections

 

The library has ‘How to Use the Catalogues’ pamphlets and also offers instruction sessions.

 

The opening screen (after typing your reader number) takes you to the catalogue. It offers searches via author/title, title, author, keyword, etc. Once you have found items you order them on screen (you need your desk number).

 

It cannot be stressed enough that you cannot assume that just one of these searches will find an item: the electronic catalogue has many faults and gaps, so try all searches including (if all else fails) building multiple Keyword searches where you add bits of the title and the author’s name. Keyword is often the most reliable way to an item. You should also try the printed catalogue if you can’t find a pre-1975 item.

 

 

Electronic Resources  including a large assortment of CD-Roms and net-based tools are available in the designated terminals: these include MLA, Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science), English-Poetry, the Times and other full-text databases, Historical Abstracts, DNB, WWW portals, and many more.  Many journals are available via electronic subscriptions.  

 

 

A Few Tips

  • Very Important:  if the BL does not have an item, the Document Supply Centre (the British Library’s main depository at Boston Spa) may well have it (many of its books are orderable on screen; others require forms held at the book delivery inquiries desk). These take 1-3 days to arrive. The DCS is a particularly likely source for journals and recent U.S. monographs.
  • It is often a good idea to cross-reference the main catalogue with the old Printed Catalogue and with the CD-Rom version (the latter allows more complex Boolean Searches; the former allows you to scan an author’s output in a way that screens just cannot do – and can also be more accurate than the electronic catalogue). 
  • Journals:  these can be hard to find:  search via the ‘Institutions’ screen as well as ‘Keyword’ and ‘Title’; if that fails ask the help desk, who are adept at finding things.
  • you can access the catalogue on the internet at www.blpc.bl.uk.  It is also possible to order books in advance on the net  (useful from Egham as they can take 1-2 hours to come).
  • if you want a history of your orders there is a machine that does a printout of the last 7 days.
  • For any problems (can’t find items etc.) ask the help desk staff:  they are hugely knowledgeable.