by Candace Barrington

The Early Book Society and Martha Driver have shared this message from Linne Mooney about the British Library closures.

I wanted to warn you that because of a cyber attack, the British Library site has been down for more than two weeks. When I spoke to staff in the MSS Reading Room a few days ago they said they didn’t know when they would be able to fetch manuscripts for readers again. They may institute a system of paper request slips as we used to use in the past, but at present there is no date for when that might happen. It was apparently a serious attack and may take months to clear the malware and re-load the system. So if you were planning to spend part of the Thanksgiving holiday in the British Library, it’s best to check to see whether you’ll be able to see any manuscripts.

To stay abreast of the issue, you can check the BL’s Knowledge Matters Blog.