Restoring our services – November 2025 update

Since the cyber-attack of October 2023 our teams have been working hard to restore workaround versions of more of our services, while we continue the huge task of rebuilding our secure cyber-infrastructure from the bottom up.

Although our recovery remains ongoing, in the coming weeks and months we will restore a number of key functions which will help improve things for our users, as well as enabling us to fulfil our core responsibility to build, care for and provide access to the national collection.

Our new catalogue 

As Readers may have already heard from our regular updates, we are launching a new version of our main catalogue on Monday 8 December. The new platform will enable you to search our collection, place requests and check the status of your order, all in one place. 

The transition from the interim ordering system to the new platform will require a suspension of collection access and item requests for one week (1 – 7 December) during which our Reading Rooms will remain open for personal study. After that, requests for material in our main catalogue will be made using the new system. Any requests for items from 8 December onwards will need to be made when the new catalogue is launched. 

Access to e-resources

The launch of this new system will also enable the phased restoration of access to e-resources and subscription databases in the Reading Room from December onwards. We’ll provide updates on these as they are restored.  

The return of our Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue

Around the same time we are also aiming to launch an interim version of our Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue – we know this has been sorely missed by researchers. When this is launched, it will initially have a different ordering process. 

In addition, more than 3,000 digitised manuscripts are now available through our new website, with more to be added in the coming months.

Further improvements in the new year

Early in the new year we expect to restore access in our Reading Rooms to pre-October 2023 electronic legal deposit content, including hundreds of thousands of e-books and e-journals.

Work is also underway to launch an interim, metadata-only version of EThOS (E-Theses Online Service) in early 2026. The interim EThOS platform will not have files, but will allow users to search for theses, and will link out to each university’s repository, where downloads may be available. After launch, the team will begin a further phase of work to restore file downloads and automated requests for digitisation.

Future updates

We’ll provide more detail on each of these restored services as they approach launch, as well as providing regular updates on the progress of our continuing recovery. We’re very grateful for your patience and support as we continue our work, and we hope these restored services will mark a positive improvement in your experience using our collection.

You can find a full and regularly updated overview of what’s currently available on our website.