British Library
British Library, the national library of Great Britain, located in London and West Yorkshire. It is one of the largest libraries in the world, containing more than 18 million volumes. The library is organized into two divisions: Humanities and Social Sciences; and Science, Technology, and Industry. A copy of every book, newspaper, periodical, and musical score copyrighted in Great Britain must be deposited in the library.
The Humanities and Social Sciences division contains more than 13 million volumes, including the Oriental and the India Office collections, the National Sound Archive, and special collections of manuscripts, music, maps, newspapers, and stamps.
The Science, Technology, and Industry division operates the Document Supply Centre (headquarters for national interlibrary loans) in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire; the Science Reference and Information Service, in London; and the National Bibliographic Service, which catalogs materials for inclusion in the division libraries and publishes the British National Bibliography, a list of all new books and editions published in Britain.
The British Library also administers funds for programs related to libraries and information services through its Research and Development Department.
Noteworthy holdings in the library are some 10,000 incunabula (books printed before 1501) including the Diamond Sutra, the world's earliest dated example of printing (China, 868). The library also has two Bibles, the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Alexandrinus, dating from the fourth and fifth centuries; two of the four existing copies of the Magna Charta; notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci; and manuscripts of many other famous literary and historical figures.
The British Library was created in 1973 by a merger of the British Museum Library with other libraries and institutions. The British Library occupies a number of facilities. The principal building, which houses the library's reading rooms, was opened in 1998 in central London.