Due to major building activity at the Library you may hear some intermittent construction noise during your visit. We apologise for the inconvenience and we are grateful for your understanding. Some of our collection is also temporarily unavailable. This means we may not be able to fulfil some requests for deliveries of Library items to the Reading Rooms. At the moment, this includes most of the Ephemera Collections (until the end of May 2024) and the Pictures Collections - Hanging Art Works (until September 2024). Please check the catalogue carefully to find out if your selection is impacted. Learn more about these temporary changes.

Access the Library’s world-class collections and services through our modern and comfortable reading rooms.

Please note that there are no collection deliveries in evenings or on weekends and that delivery times vary throughout the week. Check delivery times before you visit.

Within the reading rooms you can:

  • request and access collection items
  • speak to expert staff
  • search and access electronic resources including journals, ebooks, indexes and databases
  • use our computers and internet for free
  • browse our reference collection
  • photocopy, scan and print

As we are a reference library you can use collection items in our reading rooms but not take them home. We are also a closed stack library, meaning our collection storage areas cannot be visited by the public except on our behind the scenes tour.

Man holding book at desk in Special Collections Reading Room

Instead, you can conveniently request items through our online catalogue, and we will deliver them to one of our reading rooms for you to use:

The time it takes for items to be delivered varies between rooms, so be sure to check our collection delivery times and login to your account with your Library card before you visit. Don't have a Library card? Apply for one online