Multi‐lingual OPAC developments in the British Library Available to Purchase

The British Library was established in 1973 from organisations with much longer histories. One of these was the Library of the British Museum which was founded in 1753. Since then the collections of the British Library have developed, until today it is one of the major libraries in the world. It is best known for its collections of books and periodicals and there are over 600 kilometres of shelving to hold these. Possibly less well known are the collections of nearly 1.5 million music scores, two million maps, three million microforms, 32 million patent specifications and about 40 million stamps.