How to order material online

Registered readers can pre-order printed material using our online main catalogue. You can search for archives and manuscripts using our Archives and Manuscripts online catalogue and order them using our online manuscript order form. We recommend that you pre-order this material at least 48 hours before you visit the Library.

If you do not view the material within six working days, it will be returned and you will have to order it again. You can pre-order up to six items total. This includes manuscripts and printed material combined.

A small number of our manuscript collections have restricted access. These require at least two days prior notice and, in some cases, permission to view. Restricted material cannot be kept on reserve. For more information about this process, see our section about items with restricted access.

If you are in doubt about access to a collection, please email manuscripts@nls.uk at least two working days in advance of your visit.

When you arrive, please tell the staff in the Special Collections Reading Room that you have material on reserve.

After consulting material in the Special Collections Reading Room, you may reserve items for up to six further working days.

Please let staff in the Special Collections Reading Room know that you would like items to be kept on reserve when you bring them back to the desk.

For manuscripts, you should first consult the relevant catalogue in the reading room or our online Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue to identify the material you wish to read. You must then complete the online manuscript order form either on your own computer or using the public computers in the Special Collections Reading Room. Separate requests should be placed for each manuscript you require.

For printed items, you should consult the relevant catalogue or use our online main catalogue to identify the required item. Then place an online request via the main catalogue.

A small number of books, maps and manuscripts of particular cultural significance have restricted access for preservation reasons:

• These items are available for consultation only for research which needs the originals and cannot be undertaken using existing surrogates
• You must give us 48 hours' notice that you wish to consult the item(s).
• If permission to consult is agreed, the item(s) can only be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room between 10am and 4pm on weekdays (Monday to Friday).

Some of our photographic collections are stored in a cool store to improve their preservation.

These items need to undergo an overnight acclimatisation procedure, and so you must request them by 3pm so that we can issue them the following day. Requests made after 3pm on a Friday will not be available until the following Tuesday.

The collections that are affected have the Library shelfmark 'Phot.' and 'MMK', and we have flagged them up with a notice on their main catalogue record.