History of British Library

The British Library is one of the world’s largest libraries. It contains over 170 millions separate items. In addition, nearly 10,000 items are added each day resulting in a library grows by about 3 millions items a year.

Opened by the Queen in 1999, this complex by Colin St John Wilson provided the British Library with facilities worthy of one of the world’s great repositories of learning.

The institution that the when building was intended to house was created by Parliament’s 1972 British Library Act.  The library was organized in July 1, 1973 and was formed from the former British Museum, National Central Library, National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography.

The British Museum library founded in 1753 based on earlier collections and later increased by the addition of royal libraries, had the right to a free copy of all books published in the United Kingdom.

In 1998 British Library moved to a new headquarters.
History of British Library