The British Library

The British Library

The British Library

The Front Entrance to The British Library
The British Library

Overview

The national library of the United Kingdom, The British Library is the second largest library in the world . It contains over one hundred-fifty million items from around the world, including over fourteen million books .

Background

The British Library is fairly young. Although its contents include ancient manuscripts and prehistoric artifacts , the idea of a national library for the United Kingdom only came forward in the 1960s . While work and planning began in the 1970s, the building itself did not open to the public until 1998 . When it was finished, The British Library was the single largest public building constructed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century . Today, over sixteen thousand people use The British Library's extensive collection each day, either through its building or its online resources .

The King's Library

The King's Library

The King's Library Tower, viewed from the second floor of The British Library
The King's Library

The King's Library, also called the George III Collection, consists of sixty-five thousand volumes and nineteen thousand pamphlets, collected by King George III over the course of his reign. Its contents were largely printed in Britain, Europe, and North America between the 15th and early 19th centuries. This collection is considered one of the most significant collections of the Enlightenment .

When King George III was crowned in 1760, he found himself ruling over a kingdom with no consequential royal library. King George III sought to change this, and began by acquiring the personal library of Joseph Smith, the British Consul to Venice, in 1768. From this point on, the King sent representatives to major book sales in London and broader Europe. By the time of King George III's death in 1820, he had collected one of the most expansive and impressive libraries of his era .

After the death of King George III, the library was housed in the British Museum. On its arrival in 1823, the King's Library doubled the extent of the museum's print collection. The library served as a gift to the nation, accessible to the public for research and education. The library remained at the British Museum for a full one hundred forty-five years, until being moved to the more-secure Bodleian Library in Oxford during World War II. Responsibility for the King's Library was transferred to The British Library in 1973, and the collection was moved to the newly erected building in 1998 .

Today, the King's Library is housed in the King's Library Tower in The British Library. The Tower is glass-walled, allowing visitors to see the collection while maintaining proper lighting, temperature, and humidity controls for the preservation of the collection. Despite the value and age of the King's Library, it remains a working collection. Readers may request volumes through the Rare Books and Music Reading Rooms of the British Library .

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