We regret to inform you that, due to essential maintenance works, some of the British Library's Western Manuscripts material will be unavailable to readers from 10 January 2013 until 12 March 2013.

This work will affect a large portion of our high grade material (Select, Restricted and Z Safe). Readers will need to return any such items already issued to them by 9 January 2013. 

Surrogates are available for a significant number of the items affected. We are continuing to add full digital coverage of more manuscripts (including some affected by these temporary restrictions) to our Digitised Manuscripts site.

If you plan to consult manuscript material during this time, please contact British Library Customer Services using the details at the top of our contacts page.

We apologise for any inconvenience this essential work may cause.