Maybe you’re an expert in research, reference, curation or preservation. Perhaps you’re an IT professional, marketing specialist or skilled in digital/audio. Or it could just be that human resources, finance, business development, administration or estates and facilities is your thing. Whatever your background or ambition, the British Library could have more to offer you in terms of a career than you think.

Have a look around this site and you’ll be able to find out what it's like to work here from the people themselves. You’ll also be able to read about our vision and values and how six distinct purposes enable us to ensure we fulfil our mission to make our intellectual heritage accessible to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment. And, you’ll be able to see exactly what’s on offer for you, should you join us.

 

Diversity

Diversity is at the heart of our business aims.

Apply for vacancies

Start planning your next career move.

Opportunities

From short-term work experience to longer internships, find out about the variety of opportunities to work with us.

Our locations

The British Library has two main locations: St Pancras, London and Boston Spa, Yorkshire.

Case studies from our staff

…Our team is constantly learning and developing…

We have been at the forefront of digitisation and digital preservation projects for over two decades.

…You won't find these kind of challenges in many other organisations…

Whilst we’re structured like many other IT teams, what we do day-to-day ultimately leads to the preservation of our history and collective knowledge. And, because our collection is very diverse, it could be print or sound based.

…The sheer size of the place means there are great development opportunities…

We help people find and use material held in some of the most unusual and hard to search parts of our collection – answering questions from Readers as well as those phoned in or sent to us as emails and letters, or via our QuestionPoint and Chat services.