Directory and guide to the history and collections of independent subscription libraries.

One of the world's oldest and most famous libraries at Oxford University.

The bfi National Library provides access to a large collection of documentation and information on film and television.

Lending library of hand made wooden jigsaw puzzles. 3,500 puzzles in current circulation. The club has been in existence since 1933.

As well as being the working library of the London School of Economics (LSE), the library serves as a national collection of material for research on Social Sciences.

A free service to allow you to find out what material is held in the major Reference and Document Supply collections of the British Library.

Access to 10.5 million articles from 20,000 premier journals, 2.5 million conference papers, 10,000 new articles daily. Search and order directly over the Web and receive articles within two hours.

The British Library's Online Information Server. Includes: Blaise - bibliographic records provided by the major departments of the British Library, including Humanities and Social Sciences, the Science Reference and Information Service, Oriental and India Office Collections, Music, Maps and the Document Supply Centre. Gabriel - the information server for Europe's National Libraries and the full text of the Magna Carta.

Centre for the Study of Early English Women's Writing, 1600-1830, in Jane Austen's former home. Online texts, history and access.

Founded in 1653 in Manchester, England and open free of charge. History, list of manuscripts and online catalogue.

Unified access to the catalogues of some of the largest university research libraries in the UK and Ireland.

Index of family history resources held by public libraries in Britain and Ireland

A law library for Inner Temple members and for barrister members of the other Inns of Court. Includes a history of the Inner Temple.

Official site of the oldest subscription library in Britain, founded in 1741. History of the library and the village, photographs and information for visitors.

Directory with summary information arranged geographically and by type of library.

Details of available documents, search the catalogues of the photographic, picture and prints collections.

Subscription lending library in London dedicated to Marxism and labour movements. Overview of collections, lecture programme and membership rates.

The national (UK) development agency working for and on behalf of museums, libraries and archives and advising government on policy and priorities for the sector.

Research and reference library based at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

A complete list of Library catalogues and indexes, current exhibitions and a digital library.

Based in Plymouth, south-west England, the NMBL contains one of the world's major collections of literature on aquatic sciences and fisheries, and acts as a marine biological sciences resource for the UK.

Government site detailing the progress of the government's project to connect all public libraries to the Internet

World's largest public library devoted exclusively to modern poetry. Site includes a 'Lost Quotation Noticeboard' for when you can't remember what comes next.

Provides information on the PLR Scheme. It provides advice on eligibility, registration and payment from government for the free lending of their books by libraries.

Science Museum Library is a research library, open to the general public for reference. Our collections form a record of scientific, technological and medical change since the eighteenth century

Free educational institution in the Lake District. Bibliographies and artefacts on natural history and local people including Beatrix Potter, Ruskin and the Lake poets.

Book collection dating from 1799 and music library. Events, membership and location map.

Independent subscription library with collections strong in nineteenth-century periodicals and material on South West England. Photographs, history and membership information.

Private lending library in London including archives relating to Highgate Village and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Description of collections and lecture programme.

History and photographs of this subscription library offering books, magazines and CDs. Programme of free events and children's page.

Scholarly subscription library in central London collecting principally in the humanities. History, collections, membership information and online catalogue.

A subscription library in Manchester featuring 19th century literature, local school exhibits, artist submissions, and gallery.

An exhaustive list of libraries, compiled by Sheila and Robert Harden with sites that make 'an effort to use the medium imaginatively' marked.

Research library in London, open to the public free of charge. Catalogues of books, archives and images.

History and description of the local history, maritime and geological collections of this English learned society.

A collection of materials concerned with the activities, expression and enquiries of the labor movement, its allies and its enemies, since the late eighteenth century.