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The British Library has made its extensive collection of bibliographic records freely accessible to everyone. This service is addressed beyond the community of librarians and information specialists and aims to facilitate alternative uses of this material.

Approximately 14 million bibliographic records for publications dating back centuries and relating to every conceivable subject area are now openly accessible. This material is accessible in xml and structured as RDF/DC format. It is licensed under creative commons license that does not permit commercial use.

This data can be useful in scientific research, teaching, as well simple browsing, in cataloguing and acquiring publications, as well as in confirming bibliographic information, among other things. The British Library is now examining the possibilities to provide bibliographic metadata as linked data in the future. The free bibliographic data by the British library are provided alongside the priced massive record MARC supply that is extensively used by large commercial clients.
The freely accessible bibliographic records of the British Library can be found here www.bl.uk/bibliographic/datafree.html