Overview

The British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s greatest libraries. Our collections include more than 150 million items, in over 400 languages, to which three million new items are added every year. We house books, magazines, manuscripts, maps, music scores, newspapers, patents, databases, philatelic items, prints and drawings and sound recordings.

The Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives a general right of access to recorded information held by public authorities and obliges them to disclose information, subject to a range of exemptions. Applicants have the right:

• To be told whether the information exists
• To receive the information within 20 working days.

Update to The British Library’s Freedom of Information Policy

The British Library has updated its Freedom of Information Policy which you can read in full here. Please note the following:

• The British Library will no longer comply with requests that cost more than £450 to handle. However, we will ensure wherever possible that we help applicants in breaking down requests to bring them under the threshold.
• The British Library will charge for disbursements (charges for photocopying, printing, postage, etc) over £35.
• The British Library will not handle complaints or appeals received more than two months after its initial response.

The British Library’s Publication Scheme

One of the aims of the Act is that all public authorities should be clear and proactive about the information they make available. Section 19 of the Act requires the preparation of a Publication Scheme which sets out:

• The classes of information the Library publishes or intends to publish
• The manner in which they will be published
• Whether the information is available free of charge, or upon payment of a fee

The aim of the Publication Scheme is to explain what information the Library makes available to the public as a matter of course, how and when it will do so, and whether or not this information is made available free of charge. The Scheme will be periodically reviewed, amended and updated to include further published information.

Overall responsibility for this Scheme is taken by the Executive Team, which oversees all aspects of Freedom of Information implementation in the British Library. The Executive Team has delegated day-to-day responsibility for the operation of the Scheme to the Head of the Corporate Information Management Unit.

Classes of information in the Publication Scheme

The Library is committed to publishing a range of information of interest to the general public and to specialised audiences. To facilitate this we have grouped the information into eight broad categories:

1. Organisation and management of the Library
2. Information about the collections
3. Information about reader and public services
4. Public service standards
5. Strategies and plans
6. Policies and procedures
7. Staff issues
8. Communications

Specific information can be found by clicking on one of the classes and following the links to the document required.

Access to information

Information listed in the Scheme is made available in a number of ways. Not all information is necessarily made available in all these ways; see individual documents for details of which options are available:

• Website: when information is available on the British Library’s or another website the web address is given and a link provided. When the link is to another organisation’s website, provision of the information is the responsibility of that organisation
• By post: information will be posted on request, following receipt of any fee applicable (see below). Please use the contact details outlined for the document to send your request. We aim to dispatch the information within 20 working days from receipt of your request and the fee (if applicable). We do not provide printouts of the websites of other organisations.
• The British Library Reading Rooms: material that forms part of the collections can be seen in the Reading Rooms at St Pancras, Colindale, and Boston Spa during opening hours (see link).

Information not listed in the Publication Scheme

Under the Freedom of Information Act you can apply to see information that is not listed in the Publication Scheme. Send us a letter, fax, or email requesting the information and, provided it is not covered by one of the exemptions in the Act, we will provide you with that information as soon as possible, or in any event within 20 working days.

When making a request for information include the following details:

• Your name and address
• The information would you like to see
• The format you would prefer to have the information in. While we will make every effort to send you the information in the requested format, we may not always be able to do this.

Please email us at FOI-Enquiries@bl.uk

Exemptions under the Act

Although you may request any information we hold, there are a few exemptions under the Act that mean that we may not be able to disclose the information you need. If we decide that we cannot release the information requested, we will explain which exemption is relevant in this case.

Charges

Most of the information listed in the Publication Scheme is available free of charge, and available on the website or from the Library as detailed in the Scheme. Where charges do apply, this is stated in the Scheme. Where the Scheme indicates that the Library intends to make information available free of charge, we reserve the right to charge for copying, printing and/or postage.

Copyright and the Publication Scheme

Information available through the scheme is protected by copyright of The British Library Board unless otherwise indicated. The information contained in such copyright protected material may be used but not copied, distributed or published in any format or medium. The information must be reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. If you use any of the information available through the scheme, or distribute it to others or republish it, you must identify the source of the material and acknowledge its copyright status.

Brief extracts or copies of copyright material included in the schemes may normally be published or reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for non-commercial research purposes, private study, criticism, review or current news reporting, so long as the publication or reproduction is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement identifying the work and the author. Fair dealing for the purposes of current news reporting does not apply to photographs. Any uses not covered by fair dealing will normally require permission from The British Library Board or other copyright owners concerned.

You are not allowed to publish facsimile duplicates of any materials you have obtained from the publication scheme without written permission from The British Library. Please note that you may be required to pay a fee.

More information is available on our copyright page.

Feedback

We should be grateful for any comments you may have about our Publication Scheme. Please email us at FOI-Enquiries@bl.uk

Complaints and appeals procedure

If you are dissatisfied with the response you have had to an enquiry or with any aspect of the Publication Scheme, you should appeal to us directly by contacting:

The Chief Executive
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome or the handling of the internal review conducted by the Library, you may appeal directly to the Information Commissioner by contacting:

FoI Compliance Team (complaints)
Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Please see the full Publication Scheme framework for further details.

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