The Library entrance is located at 165 Queen’s Gate, London, SW7 5HD.
Please be aware that Queen’s Gate is a different street, parallel to Exhibition Road, where the main Science Museum entrance is located.
When you arrive, please give your name at the reception desk. Then go down the staircase facing the entrance and turn right through the Library entrance. There is also a lift available, which a Science Museum colleague on the front desk can direct you to. Library staff at our information desk will welcome you and can help with your queries.
The library is open Monday to Wednesday, 10.00 to 16.00.
Following the temporary closure of the Dana Library, we are delighted to announce that all services are once again available in London, except for viewing of rare books, archives, and special collections, which will resume in the coming months (more information forthcoming). These materials can still be consulted in-person by appointment at the Science and Innovation Park or through a virtual reading room appointment.
If you have any questions about this or would like to book an appointment, please fill out this enquiry form.
Everyone is welcome to visit the Dana Research Centre and Library to use the space, enjoy our free public Wi-Fi, and access our modern and special collections materials.
Please note that—to all but Science Museum Group colleagues and Imperial College staff and postgraduates—we are a reference library, meaning users are more than welcome to consult materials in our collections within the library, but resources cannot be checked out or removed from the space.
While drop-in visits are welcome, if you have specific items from our collections currently held at the Science and Innovation Park in Wroughton, that you would like to view, we would appreciate it if you could please contact us at least two weeks in advance, so we can make sure to have them ready and available for you. You can find out where an item is located by looking at the catalogue record. If the “Home Library” is listed at “Science Museum Wroughton,” it is located off-site, and we will need this time to have it brought over to London for you. All archives and special collections materials, except for Corporate Archives, are located at the Science and Innovation Park.
- There are eighteen reader study tables and seats: twelve in the main reading area, two large desks for consulting special collections and four quiet study tables. All have electrical sockets and reading lamps.
- There are two desks for PCs to access the Library catalogue, the Archives catalogue and the Library’s Digital Library; one of these PCs is also connected to a digital microfilm reader.
- Wi-Fi is freely accessible.
- There are lockers available for larger items you do not wish to keep with you, and we also ask that you please leave food and drinks (other than bottled water) in these lockers.
- A water fountain is available, which the library team can direct you to.
- There is an accessible toilet on the ground floor and further toilets are available on the mezzanine floor above.
- We have an induction hearing loop at the reception desk.
- Magnifying glasses are available on request.
- The Dana Research Centre and Library is a member of the M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries. We are able to register any post-graduate students who are members of our library with the Access25 scheme, which allows them to visit other libraries on the scheme.
Please contact us for more information and to sign-up.
Address: The Dana Research Centre and Library
165 Queen’s Gate
London
SW7 5HD
Email: library.archive@sciencemuseum.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7942 4242
