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 1,594,369 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 1,927,586 KB)
Samples NT (ZIP 11,145 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 10,139 KB) - British National Bibliography (BNB) Serials LOD
Full files NT (ZIP 51,070 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 50,597 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 199,001 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 222,390 KB)
Samples NT (ZIP 15,673) and RDF/XML (ZIP 15,094 KB) - VoID descriptions Turtle (ZIP 6 KB)
Files last updated: January 2021.
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 177 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 102 KB) - VoID description Turtle (ZIP 2 KB)
Files last updated: February 2020.
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 913,739 KB) Updated January 2021. 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 1,461,654 KB) Updated January 2021. 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 7,712 KB) Updated October 2020. 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 1,666 KB) Updated August 2020. Initially released in September 2016 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the fire.
- History of Magic CSV (ZIP 8,856 KB) Updated June 2020. 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 1,765 KB) Updated June 2020. 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 6,257 KB) Updated June 2020. Initially released in May 2018 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth.
- Leonarda Da Vinci CSV (ZIP 2,218 KB) Updated June 2020
- Magna Carta CSV (ZIP 3,892 KB) Updated June 2020. Initially released in 2015 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy.
Literature datasets
- Alfred Lord Tennyson CSV (ZIP 27,844 KB) Updated August 2020
- Alice in Wonderland CSV (ZIP 11,528 KB) Updated June 2020. Initially released in 2015 to accompany Alice's Day 2015 - 4 July 2015.
- Angela Carter CSV (ZIP 267 KB) Updated June 2020
- Anthony Trollope CSV (ZIP 14,668 KB) Updated June 2020
- Charles Dickens CSV (ZIP 29,156 KB) Updated February 2021
- Charlotte Brontë CSV (ZIP 8,194 KB) Updated June 2020
- Children's Literature CSV (ZIP 134,884 KB) Published March 2020. Initially published to accompany the launch of Discovering Children's Books.
- Christina Rossetti CSV (ZIP 7,788 KB) Updated December 2020
- Comic books CSV (ZIP 35,062 KB) Updated June 2020. Initially released in 2014 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Comics Unmasked.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning CSV (ZIP 10,740 KB) Updated March 2020
- Elizabeth Gaskell CSV (ZIP 7,730 KB) Updated September 2020
- E. M. Forster CSV (ZIP 2,328 KB) Updated January 2021
- Emily Brontë CSV (ZIP 708 KB) Updated July 2020
- E. R. Braithwaite CSV (ZIP 166 KB) Updated June 2020
- George Eliot CSV (ZIP 11,133 KB) Updated November 2020
- George Orwell CSV (ZIP 924 KB) Updated June 2020
- Hanif Kureishi CSV (ZIP 193 KB) Updated December 2020
- Harry Potter CSV (ZIP 548 KB) Updated June 2020. Initially released in November 2017 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic.
- H. G. Wells CSV (ZIP 11,887 KB) Updated October 2020
- James Joyce CSV (ZIP 3,113 KB) Updated February 2021
- Jane Austen CSV (ZIP 7,633 KB) Updated July 2020
- J. G. Ballard CSV (ZIP 287 KB) Updated November 2020
- John Keats CSV (ZIP 284 KB) Updated October 2020
- Katherine Mansfield CSV (ZIP 7,868 KB) Updated October 2020
- Lewis Carroll CSV (ZIP 11,003 KB) Updated January 2021
- Lord Byron CSV (ZIP 20,986 KB) Updated January 2021
- Mary Shelley CSV (ZIP 4,538 KB) Updated August 2020
- Michael Palin CSV (ZIP 240 KB) Updated August 2020
- Oscar Wilde CSV (ZIP 15,216 KB) Updated October 2020
- Percy Bysshe Shelley CSV (ZIP 12,225 KB) Updated August 2020
- Roald Dahl CSV (ZIP 606 KB) Updated August 2020
- Robert Burns CSV (ZIP 8,236 KB) Updated January 2021
- Robert Louis Stevenson CSV (ZIP 9,632 KB) Updated November 2020
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge CSV (ZIP 14,468 KB) Updated October 2020
- Shakespeare CSV (ZIP 20,783 KB) Updated June 2020. Initially released in 2016 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Shakespeare in Ten Acts - April-Sept. 2016.
- Sylvia Plath CSV (ZIP 509 KB) Updated October 2020
- Ted Hughes CSV (ZIP 491 KB) Updated August 2020
- Thomas Hardy CSV (ZIP 14,114 KB) Updated June 2020
- Virginia Woolf CSV (ZIP 3,660 KB) Updated January 2021
- W.H. Auden CSV (ZIP 1,008 KB) Updated February 2021
- William Blake CSV (ZIP 5,846 KB) Updated November 2020
- William Wordsworth CSV (ZIP 16,491 KB) Updated June 2020
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 226,008 KB) Updated October 2020. Records for printed music held at the British Library.
- Punk CSV (ZIP 519 KB) Updated July 2020. Initially released in 2016 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Punk 1976-78.
Other datasets
- National parks CSV (ZIP 1,480 KB) Updated December 2020
- Theology CSV (ZIP 139,431 KB) Updated August 2020
- UK doctoral thesis metadata from EThOS CSV (ZIP 31,633 KB) Updated October 2019. Metadata for UK doctoral theses from EThOS. Updated biannually.
Share this page
Please consider the environment before printing