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
Please note that the Linked Open BNB has found a new (beta) home with the Share Family at: https://bl.natbib-lod.org
We intend to discontinue producing the files below as they are structured to a different earlier data model. Access to the data via data dumps or SPARQL endpoint will be provided from the new system in the future.
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.
British National Bibliography
- British National Bibliography (BNB) Books LOD
Full files NT (ZIP 1,707,805 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 2,075,431 KB)
Samples NT (ZIP 11,145 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 10,139 KB) - British National Bibliography (BNB) Serials LOD
Full files NT (ZIP 52,994 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 52,703 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 308,945 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 357,597 KB)
Samples NT (ZIP 15,673) and RDF/XML (ZIP 15,094 KB) - VoID descriptions Turtle (ZIP 6 KB)
Files last updated: August 2023.
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 457 KB) and RDF/XML (ZIP 375 KB) - VoID description Turtle (ZIP 2 KB)
Files last updated: July 2023.
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 1,040,742 KB). Updated August 2023. Full file, including Cataloguing-In-Publication records. Updated monthly. Sample RDF/XML (ZIP 557 KB)
- British Library Integrated Catalogue (Books) - Books in our collections not eligible for BNB. Updated partially monthly; fully refreshed six monthly. Sample RDF/XML (ZIP 3200 KB)
- July 2023 full refresh - RDF/XML (ZIP 1,645,525 KB)
- August 2023 Update - RDF/XML (ZIP 2,161 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.
CSV 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. More detailed information about the source data for each column can be found in this document.
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 folders below include multiple CSV files, a readme.txt file and a PDF document summarising terms and conditions of use of the data.
History datasets
- Alexander the Great CSV (ZIP 1,987 KB). Updated September 2023. Initially released to accompany the British Library's exhibition “Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth” - 21st Oct. 2022-19 Feb. 2023.
- Black History Month CSV (ZIP 9,444 KB) Updated October 2022. 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 1,883 KB) Updated August 2023. Initially released in September 2016 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the fire.
- History of Magic CSV (ZIP 11,495 KB) Updated June 2023. 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 2,014 KB) Updated April 2023. 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 11,822 KB) Updated May 2023. Initially released in May 2018 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth.
- Leonarda Da Vinci CSV (ZIP 2,655 KB) Updated May 2023
- Magna Carta CSV (ZIP 4,473 KB) Updated June 2023. Initially released in 2015 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy.
- Women's rights CSV (ZIP 30,597 KB) Updated February 2023. 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 29,980 KB) Updated August 2023
- Alice in Wonderland CSV (ZIP 12,559 KB) Updated June 2023. Initially released in 2015 to accompany Alice's Day 2015 - 4 July 2015.
- Angela Carter CSV (ZIP 401 KB) Updated May 2023
- Anthony Trollope CSV (ZIP 15,448 KB) Updated April 2023
- Charles Dickens CSV (ZIP 30,161 KB) Updated February 2023
- Charlotte Brontë CSV (ZIP 8,973 KB) Updated April 2023
- Children's Literature CSV (ZIP 154,390 KB) Published March 2023. Initially published to accompany the launch of Discovering Children's Books.
- Christina Rossetti CSV (ZIP 8,341 KB) Updated December 2022
- Comic books CSV (ZIP 42,056 KB) Updated April 2023. Initially released in 2014 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Comics Unmasked.
- C.S. Lewis CSV (ZIP 986 KB) Initially released September 2023
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning CSV (ZIP 11,740 KB) Updated March 2023
- Elizabeth Gaskell CSV (ZIP 8,452 KB) Updated September 2023
- E. M. Forster CSV (ZIP 2, 477KB) Updated January 2023
- Emily Brontë CSV (ZIP 909 KB) Updated July 2023
- E. R. Braithwaite CSV (ZIP 287 KB) Updated June 2023
- George Eliot CSV (ZIP 11,797 KB) Updated November 2022
- George Orwell CSV (ZIP 1,230 KB) Updated June 2023
- Hanif Kureishi CSV (ZIP 318 KB) Updated December 2022
- Harry Potter CSV (ZIP 799 KB) Updated June 2023. Initially released in November 2017 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic.
- Hermann Hesse CSV (ZIP 908 KB) Updated July 2023
- H. G. Wells CSV (ZIP 12,677 KB) Updated October 2022
- James Joyce CSV (ZIP 3,450 KB) Updated February 2023
- Jane Austen CSV (ZIP 8,423 KB) Updated July 2023
- J. G. Ballard CSV (ZIP 414 KB) Updated November 2022
- John Keats CSV (ZIP 8,449 KB) Updated October 2022
- Katherine Mansfield CSV (ZIP 581 KB) Updated October 2022
- Lewis Carroll CSV (ZIP 11,558 KB) Updated January 2023
- Lord Byron CSV (ZIP 21,541 KB) Updated January 2023
- Mary Shelley CSV (ZIP 4,876 KB) Updated August 2023
- Michael Palin CSV (ZIP 365 KB) Updated August 2023
- Oscar Wilde CSV (ZIP 15,937 KB) Updated October 2022
- Percy Bysshe Shelley CSV (ZIP 13,042 KB) Updated August 2023
- Roald Dahl CSV (ZIP 769 KB) Updated August 2023
- Robert Burns CSV (ZIP 8,519 KB) Updated January 2023
- Robert Louis Stevenson CSV (ZIP 10,165 KB) Updated November 2022
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge CSV (ZIP 15,228 KB) Updated October 2022
- Shakespeare CSV (ZIP 22,610 KB) Updated April 2023. Initially released in 2016 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Shakespeare in Ten Acts - April-Sept. 2016.
- Sylvia Plath CSV (ZIP 670 KB) Updated October 2022
- Ted Hughes CSV (ZIP 634 KB) Updated August 2023
- Thomas Hardy CSV (ZIP 15,239 KB) Updated June 2023
- Virginia Woolf CSV (ZIP 4,529 KB) Updated January 2023
- W.H. Auden CSV (ZIP 1,029 KB) Updated February 2023
- William Blake CSV (ZIP 6,299 KB) Updated November 2022
- William Wordsworth CSV (ZIP 17,351 KB) Updated April 2023
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 424,346 KB) Updated October 2022. Records for printed music held at the British Library.
Other datasets
- National parks CSV (ZIP 1,647 KB) Updated December 2022
- Punk CSV (ZIP 767 KB) Updated July 2023. Initially released in 2016 to accompany the British Library's exhibition Punk 1976-78.
- Theology CSV (ZIP 164,529 KB) Updated August 2023
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