The British Library collection includes extensive material to support business research and planning. It has particular strengths in English-language material published in the UK and USA, but also selective coverage of English-language material published elsewhere.
We have a wide range of academic journals, market reports, trade directories, trade journals, annual reports, and books covering all aspects of business and management.
A selection of our printed material is available on the open shelves in the BIPC Reading Room but much of the printed material is stored across our sites at St Pancras and Yorkshire.
We hold the national collection of patent specifications, official patent, trade mark, and design journals, and officially and commercially published indexes and abstracts from not only Britain, but some 130 countries and authorities worldwide. A large portion of our non-British IP material is not catalogued (and may not currently be accessible due to the ongoing issues caused by last year’s cyber-attack) so please speak to our team for help with access.
We also hold a collection of Trade Literature from mid-19th century to the present. Catalogue records for this collection are only available for items from 1980s onwards. For earlier items, there is a card index available in the BIPC Reading room, which is available for consultation. The collection is arranged by company name so you will need to provide company names to be able to place an order. If you do not have a company name, please speak to our team for further assistance.