I want to find contact details for every library in the UK

September 17, 2012 5:20 AM

Does there exist a list of address/contact details for all libraries in the UK (or Scotland)? Failing that, is there a way that I could acquire or build such a list without doing it manually?
posted by Kirn to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

(By manually I mean 'painstakingly copy-pasting from every crap library website for a week')
posted by Kirn at 5:21 AM on September 17, 2012

Yes - http://www.culturegrid.org.uk/use/uk-public-library-dataset/ (note there's a slightly improved version at the bottom of the dataset page).
posted by samj at 5:42 AM on September 17, 2012

If you are interested in private libraries in addition to public libraries you may want to check to see if organizations such as cilip or the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals publically publishes or makes their membership list available for purchase. In the US where I am located SLA or the Special Libraries Association is useful for this type of thing.
posted by rdnnyc at 11:46 AM on September 17, 2012

Brilliant - that's exactly what I was looking for samj, and thanks rdnnyc for the additional info. This has made my life a lot easier, thanks.
posted by Kirn at 12:19 PM on September 17, 2012