Download a free selection of datasets and supporting documentation to use for your library or research. These datasets include the British National Bibliography in a range of formats.
Files are distributed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication licence. Please read our terms and conditions.
Linked open data
Bulk downloads, serialized as N-Triples, RDF/XML or Turtle (ttl) are available below for published and forthcoming books and serials eligible for BNB.
These ZIP files include multiple files and a PDF document and are updated monthly. You can find the models, schema and URI patterns on the BNB Linked Data Platform.
Sample data are available for all of the bulk downloads. We make samples to get feedback on datasets or schema in development.
British National Bibliography
- British National Bibliography (BNB) Books LOD
Full files NT (ZIP 1,641,119 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 1,988,515 KB)
Samples NT (ZIP 11,145 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 10,139 KB) - British National Bibliography (BNB) Serials LOD
Full files NT (ZIP 52,444 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 52,119 KB)
Samples NT (ZIP 10,868 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 10,142 KB) - British National Bibliography (BNB) Cataloguing-In-Publication LOD
Full files NT (ZIP 260,380 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 297,088 KB)
Samples NT (ZIP 15,673) and RDF/XML (ZIP 15,094 KB) - VoID descriptions Turtle (ZIP 6 KB)
Files last updated: June 2022.
Knowledge Organizations: experimental release
This is an experimental linked data release of the MARC organization codes and ISILs that the British Library assigns to organizations in the UK, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories. Please note that the URIs used in the dataset are provisional and do not resolve; fuller documentation is available in this document (PDF 626 KB).
- Knowledge Organizations LOD
Full files NT (ZIP 185 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 107 KB) - VoID description Turtle (ZIP 2 KB)
Files last updated: January 2022.
Open RDF/XML data
These versions of the datasets are structured using a basic form of RDF/XML. They do not contain URIs and are not primarily intended for use in a linked data environment. These ZIP folders include multiple files and a PDF document.
- British National Bibliography (BNB) RDF/XML (ZIP 977,809 KB) Updated June 2022. Full file, including Cataloguing-In-Publication records. Updated monthly. Sample RDF/XML (ZIP 557 KB) Weekly files in this format for new BNB records are also available.
- British Library Integrated Catalogue (Books) RDF/XML (ZIP 1,487,835 KB) Updated June 2022. Books in our collections not eligible for BNB. Updated monthly. Sample RDF/XML (ZIP 3200 KB)
- British Library printed music RDF/XML (ZIP 88,070 KB) Released May 2015. Dataset comprising records for printed music held at the British Library. See below for another version of this dataset in CSV format.
Researcher Format (CSV) datasets
Our themed datasets are available in comma-separated value (CSV) format for you to analyse the data using utilities or applications such as Open Refine. We produce these files in response to: requests from researchers, projects and British Library exhibitions.
Researcher Format datasets consist of up to 5 files, each providing a different view of the data; the views focus on bibliographic records, titles, names, topical terms or Dewey classification. A ‘readme’ file accompanying each dataset provides details of file contents.
You can download the following CSV datasets of metadata for resources relating to people or topics. The resources are from the BNB and the British Library's collections. All of the ZIP files below include multiple CSV files, a readme.txt file and a PDF document.
History datasets
- Black History Month CSV (ZIP 8,639 KB) Updated October 2021. Initially released to coincide with Black History Month 2016.
- Cotton Manuscripts collection CSV (ZIP 1,739 KB) Updated December 2017. Metadata for the British Library's Cotton Manuscripts collection.
- Great Fire of London CSV (ZIP 1,791 KB) Updated August 2021. Initially released in September 2016 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the fire.
- History of Magic CSV (ZIP 9,453 KB) Updated June 2022. Initially released in September 2016 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the fire.
- India Office Medical Archives CSV (ZIP 1,793 KB) Updated May 2019. Metadata created during the India Office Medical Archives Project, 2015-2016.
- James Cook CSV (ZIP 1,923 KB) Updated April 2022. Initially released in April 2018 to accompany the British Library's exhibition James Cook: The Voyages, marking 250 years since Cook set sail from Plymouth aboard HMS Endeavour.
- Karl and Eleanor Marx CSV (ZIP 11,184 KB) Updated May 2022. Initially released in May 2018 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth.
- Leonarda Da Vinci CSV (ZIP 2,481 KB) Updated May 2022
- Magna Carta CSV (ZIP 4,288 KB) Updated June 2022. Initially released in 2015 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy.
- Women's rights CSV (ZIP 27,853 KB) Updated February 2022. Initially released in 2021 to accompany the British Library's exhibition “Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights”
Literature datasets
- Alfred Lord Tennyson CSV (ZIP 28,475 KB) Updated August 2021
- Alice in Wonderland CSV (ZIP 12,230 KB) Updated June 2022. Initially released in 2015 to accompany Alice's Day 2015 - 4 July 2015.
- Angela Carter CSV (ZIP 393 KB) Updated May 2022
- Anthony Trollope CSV (ZIP 15,240 KB) Updated April 2022
- Charles Dickens CSV (ZIP 29,646 KB) Updated February 2022
- Charlotte Brontë CSV (ZIP 8,713 KB) Updated April 2022
- Children's Literature CSV (ZIP 144,838 KB) Published March 2022. Initially published to accompany the launch of Discovering Children's Books.
- Christina Rossetti CSV (ZIP 8,158 KB) Updated December 2021
- Comic books CSV (ZIP 37,383 KB) Updated April 2022. Initially released in 2014 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Comics Unmasked.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning CSV (ZIP 11,476 KB) Updated March 2022
- Elizabeth Gaskell CSV (ZIP 7,730 KB) Updated September 2021
- E. M. Forster CSV (ZIP 2, 401KB) Updated January 2022
- Emily Brontë CSV (ZIP 873 KB) Updated July 2022
- E. R. Braithwaite CSV (ZIP 287 KB) Updated June 2022
- George Eliot CSV (ZIP 11,293 KB) Updated November 2021
- George Orwell CSV (ZIP 1,113 KB) Updated June 2022
- Hanif Kureishi CSV (ZIP 315 KB) Updated December 2021
- Harry Potter CSV (ZIP 750 KB) Updated June 2022. Initially released in November 2017 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic.
- Hermann Hesse CSV (ZIP 888 KB) Updated July 2022
- H. G. Wells CSV (ZIP 12,418 KB) Updated October 2021
- James Joyce CSV (ZIP 3,222 KB) Updated February 2022
- Jane Austen CSV (ZIP 8,164 KB) Updated July 2022
- J. G. Ballard CSV (ZIP 183 KB) Updated November 2021
- John Keats CSV (ZIP 8,304 KB) Updated October 2021
- Katherine Mansfield CSV (ZIP 570 KB) Updated October 2021
- Lewis Carroll CSV (ZIP 11,345 KB) Updated January 2022
- Lord Byron CSV (ZIP 21,373 KB) Updated January 2022
- Mary Shelley CSV (ZIP 4,719 KB) Updated August 2021
- Michael Palin CSV (ZIP 361 KB) Updated August 2021
- Oscar Wilde CSV (ZIP 15,755 KB) Updated October 2021
- Percy Bysshe Shelley CSV (ZIP 12,528 KB) Updated August 2021
- Roald Dahl CSV (ZIP 740 KB) Updated August 2021
- Robert Burns CSV (ZIP 8,429 KB) Updated January 2022
- Robert Louis Stevenson CSV (ZIP 9,732 KB) Updated November 2021
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge CSV (ZIP 14,984 KB) Updated October 2021
- Shakespeare CSV (ZIP 21,493 KB) Updated April 2022. Initially released in 2016 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Shakespeare in Ten Acts - April-Sept. 2016.
- Sylvia Plath CSV (ZIP 650 KB) Updated October 2021
- Ted Hughes CSV (ZIP 618 KB) Updated August 2021
- Thomas Hardy CSV (ZIP 14,903 KB) Updated June 2022
- Virginia Woolf CSV (ZIP 4,037 KB) Updated January 2022
- W.H. Auden CSV (ZIP 1,024 KB) Updated February 2022
- William Blake CSV (ZIP 5,842 KB) Updated November 2021
- William Wordsworth CSV (ZIP 17,082 KB) Updated April 2022
Music datasets
- British Library printed music CSV (ZIP 281,582 KB) Updated May 2015. Records for printed music held at the British Library. Another version of this dataset is available in basic RDF/XML format.
- British Library manuscript music CSV (ZIP 665 KB) Updated September 2015. Records for manuscript music held at the British Library.
- History of Music CSV (ZIP 338,002 KB) Updated October 2021. Records for printed music held at the British Library.
Other datasets
- National parks CSV (ZIP 1,624 KB) Updated December 2021
- Punk CSV (ZIP 700 KB) Updated July 2022. Initially released in 2016 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Punk 1976-78.
- Theology CSV (ZIP 144,471 KB) Updated August 2021
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