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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

What material is unavailable?

Following a cyber-attack in October 2023 much of our sound and vision collection is unavailable. In particular we have been unable to restore the Sound and Moving Image catalogue and the British Library Sounds website.  

We also can’t give access to  

  • any audio-visual material in our collection 

  • CDs 

  • VHS recordings 

  • F-Tapes 

  • LP Sleeves 

  • reel-to-reel tapes 

  • additional documents or transcripts 

  • many of our born-digital collections. 

  • broadcast news 

  • videoserver 

  • sound server 

The following subscribed sound and vision electronic resources are unavailable at the moment: 

  • Ethnographic Video Online I & II 

  • TRILT 

  • Naxos Music Library 

  • Drama online 

  • National Theatre Collection 

  • Theatre in Video and Dance in Video I & II 

However, these resources may be available at other libraries and organisations.