Science

Our resources support the needs of specialists working in academia and business, and can support multidisciplinary research interests.

Collection guides

Coronavirus (Covid-19) online information
Selected public health information and research freely available online
Science overview
We support the needs of specialists working in academia and business, and can support multidisciplinary research interests
Science electronic resources
We subscribe to a large and growing number of electronic resources and bibliographic databases
Patents
The British Library is the UK’s national patent library
Wildlife and environmental sounds
The largest collection of its kind in Europe and the most comprehensive in the world

Help

How to get a British Library Reader Pass

Science Reading Rooms

Floor 2 focuses on Medicine and Life Sciences, Floor 3 focuses on Physical Sciences and Engineering.

Find information on the open-access shelves
Access online databases and electronic books and journals
Order collection items to the Reading Rooms via our catalogues

If you need help, please ask our Reference Specialists at the Enquiry desk or contact the Science Reference Service Team.

We offer a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

You’ll need a Reader Pass

Mon: 10.00 – 20.00
Tue – Thu: 09.30 – 20.00
Fri – Sat: 09.30 – 17.00
Sun & English Public Holidays: closed

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

Science case studies

More Case studies

…I never really thought I’d do a PhD … but this particular collaborative arrangement was too good to miss!…

Exploring the privatisation of government science through life histories

Collaborative Doctoral Student British Library

…You get to know how people work in an institution like this... it's something I would like to do as well.…

Exploring the working life of a twentieth-century scientist through the archive of John Maynard Smith.

Blog posts

New online - February 2023

Friday, March 3, 2023

This month we would like to highlight five new collections that can be accessed via the EAP website. Two of these are from India, with the others from Mali, Mongolia, and Brazil. Creating a digital archive of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century...

Recording of the week: Setting up the Athena Project

Monday, February 13, 2023

In belated celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11), this week’s selection comes from Emmeline Ledgerwood, Voices of Science Web Coordinator. In 2005 the Athena Swan Charter was launched to encourage higher education and...

Mr Trick and Mrs Treat

Monday, October 31, 2022

At Hallowe’en, we’d like to introduce you to Mr Trick and Mrs Treat. Both feature in several articles in the British Newspaper Archive. The Weston-super-Mare Gazette of 21 April 1849 reported that Mr Trick and his family were amongst 90...

An Encounter between Knowledge Systems: the Work of Snowchange Cooperative

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

The Nordic Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale has been transformed for the first time into ‘The Sámi Pavilion’. Three Sámi artists, with the guidance of Sámi elders, have created works that ‘celebrate the art and sovereignty of the Indigenous...

Projects

Access to Understanding

Access to Understanding is a collaboration, led by the British Library, which unites individuals and organisations that want to promote wider understanding of biomedical research findings.