Our services

A man digitising a globe

In addition to digitising images from our vast collection for a range of clients, we also offer expert scanning, bulk digitisation plus a wide range of specialist digitisation services.

If your material is rare, fragile or in an unusual format, who better to handle it than a national library with decades of experience preserving and digitising historic collections?

The kinds of material we can handle and are suitable for specialist imaging include:

  • 3D items, such as globes and textiles
  • Pre-19th century manuscripts
  • Items over A0 in size, such as maps and newspapers
  • Non-standard formats, such as scrolls, paintings and slides
  • Items containing precious or fragile materials, such as gold leaf
  • Damaged or degraded material

Our specialist services include:

You can also order images from our collection.

What 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.

Digitisation of rare globe

3D imaging

See multi-dimensional images of your items as you’ve never seen before.

Items printed at British Library Print Copy Unit

Print and Copy Service

Quality printing and copying services for your magazines, newsletters, booklets and marketing collateral