Why digitise with the British Library?

We've digitised Magna Carta. Now put your treasures in our hands.

We’ve been at the forefront of digitisation and digital preservation for over 20 years and, as guardians of the nation’s treasures, we are world-leading experts in handling rare, fragile material.

By digitising with us you will have access to our expert conservators, imaging specialists and high-spec studios in St Pancras and Boston Spa.

Our clients order digital images from our extensive collection and commission us to digitise their own materials. We can preserve your precious archives, give them a new lease of life as digital content and help you to open up access to audiences around the world.

Services we offer

Digitisation of rare manuscript

Ordering images

Order images from our incredible collection of over 170 million items.

A person holding printed materials

High quality printing

Reproduce your digital photos, illustrations or paintings to a high specification (Giclée) on top quality paper or canvas.

Preparing to digitise an artefact

Location photography

We will come to you so your fragile, precious items can stay on-site.

A book under blue light

Multispectral assessment

Discover what’s underneath the layer visible to the naked eye.

A man placing a photo album under a digitising device

Personal collections

Digitise your family’s treasure trove of old photos, diaries, scrapbooks, letters and memorabilia.

A man digitising a book

Specialist scanning services

Using our state-of-the-art scanning equipment, operated by our cultural heritage imaging specialists, we can digitise your precious content, or content from our collection, from a range of formats.

Case studies of our work

More Case studies
The Christian Spiritualist, Vol. 1 January 1871
…"Thank you for the stellar job you all are doing digitising materials for us"…

Helping the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals (IAPSOP) plug gaps in their archive

Digitised Hatha Yoga manuscript
…“It has been a pleasure to work with the British Library"…

By digitising the 19th century Joga Pradīpikā manuscript on Hatha Yoga, the British Museum has produced innovative online content to support and promote its exhibition

Peruvian architect and PhD researcher, Yolanda Muñoz Lozano
…“The scanned letters has opened a whole new area of discovery"…

Unable to travel to the UK, Peruvian architect and PhD researcher Yolanda Muñoz Lozano was funded by Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile to digitise the papers of 19th century architect, Emile Jéquier

Digitising Charles Dickens's annotated book tour reading copies
…“We were confident these items were in safe hands"…

Dickens's personally annotated works digitised for the Charles Dickens Museum

James Blackhouse Digitisation Father
…"Priceless photos and correspondence have been preserved for everyone to view.” …

West Bank Park Heritage Trust commissioned us to digitise and preserve the priceless 19th century scrapbook of James Backhouse

Table top scanner digitisation
…"The British Library’s scanning services are excellent, producing high-quality images"…

British Library’s comprehensive back catalogue of LGBTQ magazines digitised for ProQuest’s searchable database

Help

Ordering images

Using your images

Other copying services