Collection guides

African printed books and journals

Literary and research works, reports and historical publications

Artists’ books and fine press

A collection page about our fine press and artists' books holdings.

Ashbee Library

The library of Henry Spencer Ashbee featuring erotica and editions of Cervantes

Ashley Library

The Ashley Library of English literature

Asian Britain: publications

Books, journals, magazines, pamphlets and zines, e-books, websites and more

Ballads and broadsides

Popular, cheap printed ephemera that kept people entertained and informed

Barry Ono collection of Penny Dreadfuls

19th century popular fiction known as bloods and penny dreadfuls

Black Britain: publications

Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and zines, e-books, websites and more

Bookbindings

A wide-ranging collection of fine and historic bindings

Burney collection

Largest single collection of 17th and 18th-century English newspapers available

Dexter Collection

The Dexter Collection of Dickensiana

Digitised printed books (16th–19th centuries) with...

British Library printed collection items digitised in partnership with Google Books

Digitised printed books (18th-19th century)

Over 60,000 out-of-copyright digitised books from the 18th and 19th century available for viewing, search, download and...

Dutch printed collections

Publications covering a wide range of subjects and periods from the Dutch-speaking territories

Early printed books

Highlights of incunabula and books printed before 1600