Help

Everyone is welcome to visit our exhibition galleries and public spaces. To use the Reading Rooms at St Pancras and Boston Spa you will need to register for a Reader Pass.

We do not normally issue a Reader Pass to anyone under the age of 18, but we occasionally make an exception to see specific items which are unavailable in other libraries.

We cannot admit anyone aged 11 or under to the Reading Rooms. As an under-18 student, you may find your school or public library better equipped to serve your needs.

Apart from some reference materials on the shelves, you can’t browse in the British Library’s Reading Rooms to see what you want. Instead readers search the online catalogue then order their items from storage and wait to collect them. This will take a minimum of 70 minutes or over two days for material stored off site.

The Reading Rooms are for individual study and groups of students can’t talk together in the Reading Rooms, nor can items be removed from the Reading Rooms as this is a reference library – items have to be looked at on-site.

To apply for a Reader Pass, you will need to provide a list of the titles and shelfmarks of each book you require as well as a list of other libraries from which you have tried to get the material. The shelfmark is available from the British Library’s catalogue. Please be aware your application may take up to ten days to process.

Any item in the catalogue with a ‘Document Supply’ (DSC) prefix in the shelfmark is available via public libraries through the interlibrary loan service. Your local librarian will be able to help you with this if you provide the details of the items you require.

To apply complete the Under-18 Reader Pass application form and email it to our Reader Registration Team.

Anyone over 18 can obtain a regular Reader Pass.