The British Library is the national depositary law library for the UK and Ireland, with over 150 million items including manuscripts, art, music, and sound recordings. The building, located in London, was designed by Sir Colin St. John Wilson and contains a controlled environment underground storage center. The library also holds historically significant items such as a Gutenberg Bible and Shakespeare’s First Folio. It was established in 1972 and merged with other institutions to become the national library.
The British Library is the national depositary law library for the United Kingdom. As such he receives a copy of every article published in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Open to the public, the library was first licensed by the government in 1972, but did not open in its current building until 1997. The library building is located next to St. Pancras train station in central London , with specialized branches in Boston Spa, and Colindale.
Sir Colin St. John Wilson was the architect for the building. Under his direction, the building was completed with a low profile so as not to obscure the view of St. Pancras station. The library building was also built with the same bricks as the station, so the colors of the two buildings harmonize.
As the largest building completed in the country in the early 20th century, the British Library has a floor area of over 133,950 square meters (approximately 112,000 square feet). Of the 14 floors, five are underground with the lowest nearly 75 feet (about 23m) below the surface. A controlled environment underground storage center is expected to quadruple the life of the items stored there.
In addition to printed books, newspapers and magazines, the library maintains extensive collections of written manuscripts, works of art, sheet music and musical documents. Holdings also include stamp or philatelic items and sound recordings. Maps, patents and specialized magazines constitute other collections; overall the British Library contains over 150 million items.
Specific items of interest in the British Library range from a Gutenberg Bible, one of the earliest printed books in Europe, to the handwritten music manuscripts of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The library contains a wide range of historically significant items including Shakespeare’s First Folio, a copy of the very first edition of The Times of London. Unprinted materials include Chinese oracle bones that are more than 3,000 years old and some of the earliest maps made in Europe.
Prior to the establishment of the present British Library as the national depository library, the British Museum fulfilled this role. To form the new national library, the museum holdings were merged with those of the National Central Library and the National Loan Library. Collections from other institutions such as the National Bibliography, the Office for Science and Technical Information and the India Office Library have also been added. In 1983 the collections of the British Institute of Recorded Sound also became part of the holdings of the current library.
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