What is bl.uk_lddc_bot?
bl.uk_lddc_bot is operated by the British Library as part of their legal deposit web archiving program, which collects and preserves UK web content for the national archive. This bot crawls websites to fulfill the library's obligation under UK legal deposit legislation to archive online publications. Agent Analytics can track when it visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | British Library |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
| Insights Last Updated | August 11, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
bl.uk_lddc_bot periodically fetches complete pages rather than checking metadata alone. Visit frequency typically rises with your site's popularity and update cadence.
bl.uk_lddc_bot's User Agent
| User Agent | bl.uk_lddc_bot/3.4.0-20220727 (+https://www.bl.uk/legal-deposit-web-archiving) |
How To Block bl.uk_lddc_bot With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block bl.uk_lddc_bot from accessing your entire website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all archivers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: bl.uk_lddc_bot # https://knownagents.com/agents/bl-uk-lddc-bot
Disallow: /Global Statistics for bl.uk_lddc_bot
As of August 11, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocking Trend
0% of top websites block bl.uk_lddc_bot in their robots.txt files.
Overall Archiver Traffic
0.0% of all web traffic came from archivers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block bl.uk_lddc_bot?
Rarely. bl.uk_lddc_bot preserves snapshots of your pages through redesigns, migrations, and broken links. Blocking it prevents future captures but does not remove existing snapshots. To remove those, you must contact the archive directly. Almost none of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for bl.uk_lddc_bot.
Does bl.uk_lddc_bot Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Yes. bl.uk_lddc_bot is expected to follow robots.txt directives, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether bl.uk_lddc_bot respects it.
Does bl.uk_lddc_bot Access Private Content?
No. bl.uk_lddc_bot archives only what an anonymous visitor can see. Anything public at crawl time may remain available in its archive long after you remove it from your site.
Why Is bl.uk_lddc_bot Visiting My Website?
bl.uk_lddc_bot is preserving your pages as part of a historical record. It returns periodically so the archive can capture how your content changes over time.
How Can I Tell if bl.uk_lddc_bot Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks bl.uk_lddc_bot visits in real time alongside every other known AI agent, crawler, and scraper. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "bl.uk_lddc_bot". Look for a page and its embedded assets being fetched again after a long interval. Because bl.uk_lddc_bot does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.