Help

If you would like to start a large-scale, externally funded digitisation project with the British Library, please contact us.

If you are interested in ordering individual images or having images made of a small quantity of items from the Library’s collections please contact Imaging Services.

If you would like to discuss a larger scale digitisation project idea, please contact the Reference Enquiry Team in the first instance. If a British Library curator supports the idea, they will work with you to develop the proposal. Please note that you will need to have identified or seek funding support for the new digitisation initiative since almost all digitisation at the Library is externally funded.

Further information on submitting a collaborative funding bid with the British Library is available on the Research Development web pages. The Research Development team can also be contacted at research.development@bl.uk.

Once funding has been identified, the curator will need to follow a formal process which takes into account conservation, imaging, metadata, copyright and licensing clearance, data protection and other requirements. Depending on the characteristics of the material, this process may take some time and you should allow for this whilst developing your idea.

For commercial organisations who would like to work with us on digitisation initiatives please contact BusinessDevelopment@bl.uk in the first instance.