• Research Service

Public Availability Date Service

We will check the date on which the an item was first made available to British Library users either in our Reading Rooms or through our Document Supply Service and deliver a letter confirming this with a copy of the relevant date stamp. 

We are able to employ the services of a Notary Public if we are required to supply a notarised letter in a form to meet the requirements of legal proceedings both in the UK and overseas.

Pricing

The service is charged at a rate of £90 per hour of staff time, with a minimum price of £90.  If you require the services of a Notary Public, their fee and expenses will be added to the cost. VAT is charged for customers in the EU.

How to use the service

Send an email to research@bl.uk with the details of your information request. 

Please note: The Public Availability Date of an item at the British Library may be taken as a date by which the item was definitely available to the public. However, we cannot guarantee that any item was not publicly available elsewhere in the world by an earlier date. 

Publishers in the UK are required by law to deposit copies of all their publications at the British Library: they generally do so as soon as they have copies ready to deliver. However, items originally published in other countries have to be purchased by the British Library, which may happen some time after their date of publication. Also we cannot provide reliable public availability dates for electronically-published items. For these, you will have to contact the publishers.

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