UK libraries
The aim of these pages is to present the most complete and up-to-date picture of public library internet activity in the United Kingdom. Includes a comprehensive list of online catalogues and library websites. If you trace the book you want in another library service's online catalogue, you can request it through Plymouth Library Services - make sure you give the catalogue as the "source of information" so that we can try to get it for you quickly.
WiLL opens up the resources of all public libraries in London by letting you search all their catalogues simultaneously. You can also search community information and four museum collections.
SAGE is the south-west's equivalent of WiLL. The libraries currently included are Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, and Wiltshire.
COPAC lets you to search the catalogues of these libraries simultaneously:
- University of Aberdeen Library
- University of Birmingham Library
- The British Library
- Cambridge University Library
- University of Durham Library
- University of Edinburgh Library
- University of Glasgow Library
- Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Library (including the catalogue of the Science Museum Library)
- University of Leeds Library
- University of Liverpool Library
- The London School of Economics Library
- British Library of Political and Economic Science
- University of Manchester Library
- University of Newcastle Library
- University of Nottingham Library
- Oxford University
- School of Advanced Study (including the catalogues of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library, the Institute of Classical Studies Library, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library, the Institute of Germanic Studies Library, the Institute of Historical Research Library, the Institute of Latin American Studies Library and the Warburg Institute Library)
- University of Sheffield Library
- University of Southampton Library
- Trinity College Dublin Library
- University College London
- University of London Library (including the catalogue of Heythrop College Library)
- University of Warwick Library and
- The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine.
The British Library is one of the world's great knowledge institutions. It holds over 150 million items from every age of global civilisation, from historical documents to the latest information for business and research. This website describes the collections and wide range of services. You can search the
British Library integrated catalogue and
manuscripts catalogue and also view some of the cultural treasures on show in the galleries in London.
The British Library Newspaper Library online catalogue includes entries for over 52,000 newspaper and periodical titles. The collections include: all UK national daily and Sunday newspapers from 1801 to the present; most UK and Irish provincial newspapers, some dating from the early 18th century onwards; selected newspapers from around the world in European languages, some dating from the 17th century onwards; and a wide range of UK and Irish popular periodicals, covering all subjects from fashion, pop music and cinema, to sports, hobbies and trades.
Cadensa, the online catalogue, includes entries for almost two-and-a-half million recordings held in the British Library National Sound Archive. It is one of the largest catalogues of its kind anywhere in the world, covering both published and unpublished recordings in all genres from pop, jazz, classical and world music, to oral history, drama and literature, dialect, language and wildlife sounds. You can confirm the existence of recordings and compile lists and discographies.
This is Scotland's largest library, with 7 million printed books, 120,000 volumes of manuscripts, 1.6 million maps, and over 20,000 newspaper and magazine titles. The site includes online catalogues of books, manuscripts, and special collections.
The National Library is one of the great libraries of the world. Its home is in the seaside town of Aberystwyth in Ceredigion. Since 1911 it has enjoyed the right to collect, free of charge, a copy of every printed work published in Britain and Ireland. In addition it has a huge collection of works about Wales and the other Celtic countries: books and pamphlets, magazines and newspapers, microforms, ephemera, and a wealth of electronic material. Site includes online catalogues of printed materials, and non-print materials.
A major reference library and the Victoria and Albert Museum's curatorial department for the art, craft and design of the book, The National Art Library contains up to two million items in total. Site includes online catalogue.
The Department of Information & Library Systems is a reference library for the biological and earth sciences. Subjects covered include biology; genetics; conservation; ecology; classification and taxonomy; history of natural history; crystallography; gemmology; meteoritics; mineralogy; petrology and regional geology. Site includes online catalogue.
Founded in 1883 as the Science Library of the South Kensington Museum (which also had Art and Education Libraries), it had grown into an important national science library by the 1930s. More recently it has specialised in the history of science and technology, in its key role as part of the National Museum of Science & Industry. In 1992 its was linked with the adjacent Central Libraries of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine to form the Imperial College & Science Museum Libraries. Includes online catalogue which is also part of COPAC.
Extensive site includes online catalogue of the Caird Library and manuscripts college, online catalogue of Prints and Drawings, online catalogue of historic photographs, and access to PORT, the Maritime Information gateway.
The bfi National Library provides access to a large collection of documentation and information on film and television. As a major national research collection, the main priority is to provide comprehensive coverage of British film and television, but the collection itself is international in scope. Site includes online catalogue of books.
BOPCRIS aims to save you time and effort finding British Official Publications over the period 1688 -1995. The site provides a bibliographic database which lets you search and browse for relevant documents, read abstracts of key documents, and read the digitised full-text version of a limited number of documents.
A library of over 40,000 titles for people with sight loss. Postage is free. As a member you can borrow books in Braille and Moon, Giant and Large Print. You also have access to a range of online resources and access to the
Talking Book Service which lends CDs in the RNIB's DAISY format.
