Report on CILIP Government Information Group Visit: Bank of England Library & Archive Services – Thursday 9th July 2024, 2-4pm

Photo Credit: Mary (Marette) Hickford (2026)

This summer, GIG were hosted by colleagues at the Bank of England’s library and archive in the City of London. Here, in a post originally written for the British Library’s internal Reference Services blog, Marette Hickford (Business & IP Information Specialist, British Library) discusses the past and present of information services at the Bank.

The Bank of England might be an intimidating building, but the door to enter is small. After being checked and waved through by the friendly security guard, the group were collected from where customers queued to deposit their bags of gold and silver. I was disappointed that the deposit counter didn't match my expectations, having watched Mary Poppins on numerous occasions!

The visit started with a presentation about how the Bank of England came into being and how the building has changed over time. I have always associated the building with Sir John Soane, but very little of his building remains. We were pointed out where the Governor's office is, who happened to be in as his window doors were open to let the air in. Since the new Governor's arrival, staff have been allowed to use the small courtyard.

We were shown a model of the Bank of England and a cantilevered staircase which stands over Roman mosaics which had been discovered in the 1920s whilst workmen were extending the vaults. An important fact - of the gold bars held at the Bank of England, the Bank only owns two of them.

Library and Archive Services

The group was then taken to the library which, if you love the 1970s style, then you will enjoy the surroundings as the layout (and signage) has not changed since then. Journals have been replaced by study spaces, but these are on the upper level, and we could only hear the tapping of keyboards to know that there were people there.

In a boardroom-style meeting room, we were told how the library or libraries evolved at the Bank of England. Courtesy of its archival material, the word "library" was referenced in a 1780 document, but it wasn't until 1850 when a staff library was created by the Library and Literary Society (before the first public library opened). It was a subscription-based staff and though situated in the Bank, the purpose was to support staff leisure and learning. No doubt there were finance books but there was a range of fiction books such as science-fiction. It proved to be very popular with most staff subscribing to use the service.

In 1922, a reference library was started to support the work of the Bank of England and in 1998, because of internal structural changes, the two libraries merged. This resulted in having one library in one location but there are still book plates bearing the names of both services.

In 1971, the current library space was unveiled. It is located three floors underground. In comparison, the Bank of England archives were formed during the 1960/70s and didn't join the library service until 1998. However, until this year, they were run as two separate teams with their own management structure. Now, there is one manager, the Head Librarian, who is in charge of both services. There has been a name change too - "Archives, Records & Knowledge Services". The team now consists of 5 library staff and 6 archivists.

The current library collection covers expected topics such as economics, banking, finance, central banking, history, regulations and technology but also human resources, leadership, wellbeing and diversity. However, in 2014, there was a large review of the collection resulting in a large reduction. This most likely impacted upon the collection inherited from the staff library. There are about 15,000 books, 4,000 journals and a collection of uncatalogued pamphlets. There is a store in Debden.

In terms of formats, staff still prefer reading print rather than electronic and the library catalogue (Soutron) is available via staff desks as well as in the library. Books can be borrowed for 2 months, which has been extended from one month due to there being a lot of overdue books! One of their main electronic resources is EBSCO Discovery Services which the Bank of England has also embedded their collections in. Other online services include journals, news, insurance and British Standards Institute, the latter a valued resource.

A considerable challenge is the invisibility of the service. However, there is regular usage of the A-Z pages provided via the intranet. There is an enquiry service which runs Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm - face to face and online. Typical requests include requests for scans and literature review searches. Due to the new merger, the archive services have added their enquiry service and share responsibility of responding to enquiries (one librarian and one archivist throughout the week). There is a lot of mutual learning about the enquiries both teams receive. The structural changes were a recognition of the flat budget and therefore, will hopefully "futureproof" the service as a whole.

In response to a question about the use of artificial intelligence, the Bank of England is implementing Co-pilot and SharePoint, but policy asks staff not to use AI on third party content and cannot be used for making decisions. Informational management is being implemented under the term "Knowledge Management."

Another question was about who the library staff liaise with externally. The Financial Conduct Authority has their own information centre (which replaced their library) and there is also a central bank community which organises regular conferences.

Special collections

There is a special collection of 2,500 items, mostly financial, and some are older than the Bank itself. The collection includes books published about the Bank of England but also gifts from Governors and Lead Cashiers. Sadly, such gifts are not given anymore. There is an aim to have this collection made accessible through a catalogue. Prior to the British Library's cyber-attack, they had started to add items to the English Short Title Catalogue but only 8 had been done!

The oldest item was published in 1611 and covers economic topics, usury and commons complaints (a rare source for researchers). The smallest item is also one of the most unique titles, as there are only four remaining in the UK. It is a book containing tables of interest for payments. Other items include three tracts about the Bank of England with two of them being written in response to the third one. There is also an inventory of assets seized from the South Sea Company following its collapse. In case you didn't know, the South Sea Company had been a rival lender to the Bank of England before extreme stock speculations led to its complete failure.  A lesson in institutional trust and confidence!

Archival collections

The final section of the visit was a trip to one of the stores managed by the Archives store. Overall, there are 5 stores, all at the Bank of England site. We also saw a lovely display of the large metal doors used for keeping the cash safe. They tend to have a busy research room with at least 5 appointments a day, amounting to 500 people a year. The archivist was very pleased to reveal that the archives are free from pest infestations!

As often as the case with business archives, the Bank of England did not think about having archives until the 1920s. Each department would just have their own collection, keeping what they thought would be most relevant. Their archives equate to 4km worth of paper and until 2003, the archives were paper-based managed. From 2003, an electronic management system was installed but became too hierarchical. However, materials are now being transferred to SharePoint and staff are learning how important the materials are through analysis of the path structure. A level of AI will be applied to this work.

Archival materials on display include the Charter of 1694 and the Letters Patent – both set out the powers of the Bank and the rules it must comply with.  Both are in English and have been printed onto Vellum, ensuring its continuing existence. The archivist informed the group that the Bank of England is the second oldest central bank, Sweden being the first, but when it started lending, it offered 8-10% return on investment. She also showed us the book containing the first subscribers – names, occupations and investment sums.

Matt Brown, Bank of England founding charter Bank of England Museum 2024-08-30, CC BY 2.0

Other materials of significant interest include letters from William Pitt the Younger during the Napoleonic Wars, and small bank notes which had been issued due to gold shortage, and which heralded their introduction into a wider society. However, it did ignite forgeries in response.

There was also a selection of letters from Newgate Prison's inhabitants, asking for help and assistance from the Bank, but many were transported to Australia. Committee reports referred to the high number of women prisoners.

An infamous collection relates to Humphrey Morice, who after making his riches became the Governor (1727-1729). He made his money through transporting slaves. He owned 103 ships which transported 30,000 slaves. However, it was revealed that he defrauded the Bank of England, stealing about £7 million and died in mysterious circumstances. All his assets were taken by the Bank of England which included his correspondence, which has proven to be a valuable resource for research. In fact, his documents are the most requested items. In 2020, there was an exhibition about slave trade and the Bank's relationship. The archivist said that due to a loan defaulting, there was a period when the Bank ended up owning a plantation. Around this time, staff also voted for the removal of portraits of Governors known to have a formal link to slavery.

Finally, the archivist concluded the tour with the oldest archival record – a title deed published in 1516 for the ownership of land around Threadneedle Street. It was written in Latin and is very much valued by staff. They even held a birthday party!

Overall, this was an enjoyable experience for all and as the day was very hot and sunny, the coolness indoors was equally appreciated. 

Written by Mary (Marette) Hickford, Business & IP Information Specialist, British Library, 16 July 2026