Storage shelving in the British Library houses millions of books, maps, journals, newspapers. When you consider that every single book ever published in this country, as well as sound archives, patents, newspapers and so on are stored there, you begin to get an idea of how difficult it might be to actually locate manuscripts and books when requested.

There are also drawings by famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and some of the most famous books such as a Gutenburg Bible and ‘Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Since the British Library is what is known as a legal deposit library, it will receive a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Eire. If foreign books are sold in Britain, the British Library will receive copies of them as well. It will also buy a lot of items not published in the UK and Eire, but only published in other countries. On average, it will receive, or purchase, approximately three million books every year – which will take up many bookshelves.

As a research library, it is one of the biggest in the world, and contains over 150 million books, manuscripts, maps, patents etc. stored on its shelves. Anybody wanting to do any research should first obtain a Reader Pass. They must provide proof of identity, and evidence that they are a permanent resident in the UK. A passport or driving licence, and a utility bill or bank statement with their home address on it, should be sufficient. The library stores records of all its contents in a catalogue, which can be accessed online.