Lifelong Libraries - professions and organisations

• National Library of Art
  Library is in reading rooms in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  Membership available with proof of ID
• Black Cultural Archives 
  "Black Cultural Archives is the only national heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain".  1 Windrush Square, Brixton, London
• Royal Historical Society 
  Library with "more than a thousand works of historical scholarship": membership available, members of the public can also have access
• Wiener Holocaust Library
   "The Wiener Holocaust Library is one of the world's leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era.  Formed in 1933, the Library's unique collection of over one million items includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony"
• The Independent Libraries Association

  A handful of specialist and historic libraries have survived in towns and cities across the country ranging from the Birmingham and Midland Institute  to The London Library.  

Gladstone's Library

Residential library and meeting place for open-minded individuals and groups with programme of events led by writers in residence founded by the great Victorian statesman and Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone

• Goethe Institut (London) 
  German cultural institute offering language lessons and events, and library open to the public.  Offers an Onleihe system requiring only registration to access books, newspapers, films and language learning materials online
• Instituto Cervantes (London) 
  Spanish cultural institute: membership of Queen Sofia Library available 
• Institut Français (London) 
  French cultural institute: includes La Médiathèque, the "largest French library in the UK".  Membership from £30 p.a. or free walk-in use
• Instituto Italiano di Cultura 
  Italian cultural institute: includes library. Books and media available for borrowing (including postal service).  Open Monday to Thursday

Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

• Effectively a "National Library for Law"
• Research postgraduates and above can place enquiries
• See Library Guide for more details

Law Society

• Physical library
• Free remote service for enquiries needing up to 30 minutes research
• Some access offered to non-members

Gladstone's Library

Residential library and meeting place for open-minded individuals and groups with programme of events led by writers in residence founded by the great Victorian statesman and Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone

• The British Library is the national library with its main collections and Reading Rooms near Euston Station in London: see the "Join" pages for information about membership.
• The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh is Scotland's largest library and the world centre for the study of Scotland and the Scots.
• The  National Library of Wales  in Aberystwyth holds over  over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the largest collections of archives, portraits, maps and photographic images in Wales.
• The National Library of Ireland  is in Dublin.
• The National Art Library is located in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London