Diversity

A smiling diverse group of people looking down

Diversity is at the heart of our business aims.

The vast collection at the British Library represents the diversity of the world's cultures, and we aim to provide access to it by putting our users at the heart of everything we do. After all, the knowledge we preserve belongs to everyone. 

That’s why we’re committed to providing that access by working collaboratively and anticipating the needs of those users. Creating an inclusive workplace is the core of our business and a way to engage the diversity of thought that is essential to achieve our aims.

The British Library aims to be an inclusive organisation that values difference and the benefits it brings. In practice, this means treating people as individuals by regularly asking questions and listening, as well as supporting them when their circumstances change. Find out more about how we do this.

We’re committed to developing and harnessing the range of talents of our people, and are delighted to have a staff base that shares their expertise with us. We understand that differences exist, not only in race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation and religion/belief, but also in social and educational background, nationality, marital status and family or care responsibilities – and that that list is not exhaustive. We also recognise that each of these individual factors bring invaluable different perspectives that together can only help improve the services we offer.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview for people with a disability who meet our minimum essential criteria. We also view workplace adjustments as an essential consideration that can make a real difference and enable us to have lasting relationships with as broad a talent pool as possible.

Most importantly, diversity and inclusion underpin all of our values – enabling us to make better informed decisions, both for our staff and for our users.

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.

Learn more

Our departments and functions

Learn about the diverse range of teams and people who work here.

School work experience

Our invaluable work experience will set you up for the future.

Internships

Find out about our paid internships.

Apprenticeships

Do you have what it takes to be our next apprentice?