Skip to Main Content

Sound and Vision

Access to our Sound and Vision collection is through the Listening and Viewing Service, which is in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room and is by advance appointment only

Requesting and accessing material for a listening appointment

To request material for a free listening appointment or for assistance with finding material in the sound archive, please:

  1. Search our Sound and Moving Image catalogue for the title and shelfmark of the items you would like to access. You cannot request sound archive material directly from the catalogue.
  2. Contact the sound and vision reference team via our online form, quoting the title and shelfmark of the desired items. If you require assistance locating an item in our catalogue, please also use this form, providing as much information as possible regarding your research needs.

Our team is currently experiencing a high number of enquiries, so we typically only accept requests for up to 12 items. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns. We aim to respond to all enquiries within 10 working days.  

Access to recordings takes up to 8 – 10 weeks. This is due to a cyber-attack, the detailed conservation checks our team needs to conduct on every item, as well as  the involved nature of the process required to duplicate material to new playable copies. We cannot facilitate ASAP requests.

Remote access

As a result of a cyber-attack, our Sounds website is no longer in operation, and we do not have a timeline for its return. 

A small selection of wildlife recordings are available for remote access via a link in our catalogue. If this option is available for a recording, a ‘Links and Access’ field will appear at the top of the catalogue entry. You can then click the available link to be taken to a SoundCloud page to listen to the recording. 

Remote access can sometimes be facilitated via our sound copy service, but the availability of this option is determined on a case-by-case basis depending upon copyright and sensitivity concerns. Unlike our listening appointments, which are free, there is a fee attached to this service.