A major technology outage at the British Library is affecting their online systems. Until access to the systems has resumed you may wish to explore the following alternative options.

British Library Catalogue - if you want to search other library catalogues apart from our own library search then try Jisc Library Hub Discover or WorldCat. Both of these resources include records from the British Library and allow you to search other national and university library catalogues either in the UK or across the world. Please note that records for the British Library which you may find in these databases will not show live availability

EThoS (Electronic Theses Online Service) - if you are searching for doctoral research theses then we provide access to Proquest  Dissertation and Theses database with access to theses from across the world, many of which are in full-text. OATD (Open Access Theses and Dissertations) can be searched to find open access theses and dissertations from research institutions across the world. Alternatively if you know of the awarding institution look on their website as many will provide details of or access to PhD theses.

ESTC (English Short Title Catalogue) - our Historical Texts database includes access to both Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online and provides digitised images of texts. The database can also be searched by ETSC number. Alternatively you may wish to try USTC (Universal Short Title Catalogue) which offers further bibliographic data and a list of holdings.  

Please contact us if you need further advice on searching alternative resources.

If you are planning a visit to the British Library to use their collections and other services then we recommend checking their blog for up-to-date information on the status of their services.