Use the online catalogue| to search and locate material from the collections| of the British Architectural Library at the RIBA. There are guides| available on how to use the catalogue.

The catalogue:

• searchable using any keywords, e.g. the name of an architect, a building, book title, author or subject
• search results can be printed or emailed
• provides details and locations of items in the collections
• publicly accessible 24 hours a day
• borrowers can renew books from the Loan Library (RIBA members only)
• updated regularly by Library staff 

 

Some items may not appear in the catalogue; to see if material not listed in the catalogue is available, please contact| the Library.    

Visitor notice: Reduced access and hours

From now until 2014 there will be substantially reduced access to the photographs and parts of the books and periodicals collections, and temporary changes to the opening hours of the Reading Room. For further details go to Library news|.

Location of items

The catalogue will indicate where items are located. Photographs, books and journals are held at the RIBA headquarters (66 Portland Place) and accessed through the Library's Reading Room, while the drawings and archives are accessible through the RIBA Architecture Study Rooms (Victoria and Albert Museum). Staff at the Library's two sites will help to retrieve any items that are in closed stacks or stored offsite, subject to set collection times and opening hours|.

Updating the catalogue

Staff at the Library regularly update the online catalogue and around 15,000 item records are added each year, including ones for recent acquisitions|.

To enable users to search the contents of the Library's several hundred journals from across the world, staff also index journal articles as part of the Architectural Publications Index (API|). This is available on disc and as a book and also forms part of the online catalogue.