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What’s on

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Breaking the News

Fri 22 Apr - Sun 21 Aug 2022

Gold

Fri 20 May - Sun 2 Oct 2022

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Slow News Café

Tue 3 May - Tue 26 Jul 2022

Treasures of the British Library. Discover stories that shape the world.

Treasures of the British Library

Free

Food Season

Food Season

Thu 7 Apr - Fri 27 May 2022

The hoax

The Hoax: The 18th Century's Most Intriguing Deceptions

Mon 23 May 2022

Platinum Jubilee Pudding

Mon 23 May 2022

All events and exhibitions

News

Web maintenance at the British Library

Website disruption on Sunday 22 May

We're making some updates to our network, which means you won't be able to use our website on Sunday 22 May 2022.

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View our new extension plans

We’ve submitted a planning application with our commercial development partner (SMBL) to extend our St Pancras site with…

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Keeping everyone safe

We’re working hard at both our sites to make sure everyone can visit us safely.

Blogs

Medieval manuscripts blog from the British Library

Highlights from our Gold exhibition

Lead image for Americas blog from the British Library. Image by Agustín Víctor Casasola, shelfmark LF.31.b.696

Cross-media Research: Searching for Poets, Painters and Photographers

Photo of the King's Library at the British Library, credit Luca Sage

Library Lives: Morgan Wadsworth-Boyle, British Library St Pancras

Learn

Preview of the Black literature timeline poster, showing text entries by date, portraits and a tablet featuring images of book covers and handwritten manuscripts

Collage of photograph of Andrea Levy's parents and one of her manuscripts

‘How come England did not know me?’: Recording Andrea Levy for Authors’ Lives

More Learning resources

Discover

A Description of Three Hundred Animals [page: frontispiece and title page]

The Devonshire Manuscript

Explore this hand-written volume, known as the Devonshire Manuscript

Explore our Highlights

Get started

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Find out how to get a Reader Pass

Support us

Support the British Library

Help grow, protect and share our collection

Business support

Business support at the British Library

We can help you start, run and grow your business

Work with us

Students working in the Library

Current vacancies and other opportunities – and how to apply