British Library begins restoring online access after cyber-attack

The British Library is restoring its main catalogue online - which contains 36m records of printed and rare books, maps, journals and music scores - 11 weeks after a catastrophic cyber-attack.

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However, access is limited to a "read-only" format, and full restoration of services from the UK's national library could take until the end of the year.

"Full recovery of all our services will be a gradual process," Sir Roly Keating, the library's chief executive, said in a blogpost last week. He apologised that "for the past two months researchers who rely for their studies and in some cases of their livelihoods on access to the library's collection have been deprived of it".

Rhysida, a ransomware group, claimed responsibility for the attack on 31 October. In November, the library confirmed employee data had been stolen in the attack and was being offered for sale on the dark web.

The library's main catalogue, an important tool for researchers around the world, has been inaccessible online since the hack.