1. Navigating the British Library’s
Collections
An Introduction to the British Library and its
Science Collections and Services
Richard Wakeford
Reference Specialist - Science
3. www.bl.uk 3
The British Library
• Sites in London and Boston Spa
• Collection covers all subjects and all
formats
• Acquisition by legal deposit,
purchase, donation and exchange
• Exhibitions and events
4. www.bl.uk 4
Reader Registration
• Pre-registration online option
• ID needed upon visit
• Registration interview and photo pass issued
• Max 3 years & renewable
• See registration details
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Using the Reading Rooms
• Conditions of use
• Create a user name and password
to use the catalogue for ordering
and accessing “My workspace” and
“My Reading Room Requests”
• Secure IT network blocks e-mail
access. WiFi is available
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Reading Room Opening Times
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun &
Public
Holidays
• Science
• Social Sciences
• Business & IP Centre
• Humanities
• Rare Books & Music
• News & Media
10:00-
20:00
09:30-
20:00
09:30-
20:00
09:30-
20:00
09:30-
17:00
09:30-
17:00
Closed
• Asian and African Studies
• Maps
• Manuscripts
10:00-
17:00
09:30-
17:00
09:30-
17:00
09:30-
17:00
09:30-
17:00
09:30-
17:00
Closed
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Origins of the Science Collection
• The British Museum Library, 1753
• The Patent Office Library, 1855
• National Lending Library, 1962
• The British Library, 1973
• St Pancras, 1998
• History of the British Library
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Research Resources - Printed
• Journals
• Books
• Grey literature
• Patents
• Official publications
• Technical standards
• Business Information, Rare books, Manuscripts, Maps, Stamps, Music,
• Sound Archive, and many other types of material
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Research Resources - Digital
• Journals & books
• Databases
• Research datasets
• UK Web Archive
• Theses via eThos
• Oral history
• Legacy digital formats, audio and video
recordings
… and other multi-format items
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Research Tools
www.bl.uk links to: e-resources
• Scopus
• Web of Science
• IEEE Xplore
• Engineering Village
• Catalogues
• Online guides
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Discovering the Collections
• British Library catalogue Explore
• “Details”
- Shelf marks
(Dewey, Science Classification etc)
- Holdings data
• “I want this”
- Order items
- Identify delivery times
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Collection Storage and Delivery
Print and Digital
• Open access - science books
and journals from 2009 -
• Delivery from stacks:
- 70 minutes - St. Pancras
basement
- 48 hours - Boston Spa
• Digital content via “Explore”
- In copyright only in reading
rooms
- Out of copyright available as
open access
,
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Onsite Free Reading Room Services
• Reference desks for face to face help
• Remote enquiries QuestionPoint
• Online Chat
• WiFi and eduroam
• Discovery sessions & 1-2-1 sessions
• Photography of print collections
within copyright limits
Welcome attendees to the British Library, this workshop and outline objectives.
Explain how long the session will take, and whether or not you’d like questions throughout the session, or to be addressed at the end.
Introduce yourself and your colleague (if applicable), stating which reference team you work in
Fire alarm: if the alarm sounds, follow me/my colleague and we’ll get you out of the building.
Outline the programme - 45 minutes,
Focus on Science RR; readers may want to use other collections for their own interests
keep their questions to the end.
- This a brief overview - we can help you when you start
National library: distinction between a national library with legal deposit duties and a university and public library. (Also NLS and NLW)
UK Legal deposit libraries: 5 UK legal deposit libraries in the UK, deposit copy of each new book. Digital Legal Deposit for digital publications including archiving UK web sites.
BL Act 1973 - incorporated several libraries ,
- funded by DCLMS and generated income
- Second largest library after Library of Congress
St Pancras - started 1982 , opened 1998
Boston Spa - storage , back office , reading room ,
- document supply from the centre of the UK for postage
Collection - 3 M items a year ; 12Km shelving
- all subjects, languages, formats BUT NOT everything!
- LD since 18C
- ELD started 1996 > 2003 Act > 2013 regulations
- Increasing E content.
- Challenge of preservation for future (eg Domesday)
- legacy E content on old formats
Exhibitions - Treasures Gallery; Edmund to tell more
- Reader Admissions Office on UGF
- Bring ID ; separate for name and for Address
- In reading room create BL Online Account for ordering
- Print account attached to this
- Separate WiFi access
- No pens – only pencils
Reader Pass gives access to all RR
Items can be ordered to any RR except special materials pre -1850; music; Mss, maps
Depends on which RR you find most comfortable - Science is popular!
Pressure on seats at busy times – students -
Access opened several years ago to all with need to use . Compared to previous rules
British Museum Library started with Hans Sloane and Joseph banks
- natural history and anthropology - Moved to NHM in 1880s
Patent Office Library – Open entry for the ordinary inventor and mechanic
- Open access shelving in subject order for browsing in the pre-computer age
National Lending Library – document supply
- Reason for multiple copies, multiple records, different shelfmarking systems
Science RR - physical sciences, biology, mathematics, engineering
Post graduate / research level
Mainly English language ; also others
Major STEM holdings across the collections
NBB Wildlife Sound Collection
Emphasis the variety of holdings and that digital is still less than 20% of collections
Value Chain - from conference proceedings via peer reviewed articles to standards and guidelines
Journals and books - digital parallels print
- Issues of access and paywalls for journals
- Open Access
Datasets - BL leads the DataCite programme for assigning dois
UK Web Archive - .uk domain crawl ; 3 times a year, 7M sites and petabytes of data
Theses – ETHos portal to collaborating HE libraries (not all eg Cambridge)
- Most new theses are born digitall and avilable on Open Access. Print copies – charges for first view
Oral History Working with Alan Turing
https://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science/interviewees/geoff-tootill/audio/geoff-tootill-working-with-alan-turing
Legacy - donated collections with floppy discs , paper tape , belts - search for kit!
Subscription bibliographic databases for search
Selection of key titles for technology
Only in the reading room - Not freely available elsewhere
Focussed on selected peer review literature
Search Example < Turing Leavitt >
Show - records display
- Book(s) and reviews
Features -
LH bar filters - Articles – since 1993 – top 20,000 journals requested
Details - LCSH and Dewey
- different shelfmarks
I want this - 70 min & 48 hr delivery
My Workspace
My Reading Room Requests
3 floors of basement storage at St Pancras
ABRS and MBHS (Mechanical Book Handling System)
Overnight van service from Boston Spa
ELD restrictions on use parallel printed LD - single copies
- Out of copyright items are open access
Basics are easy and (almost) self explanatory but difficulties can easily arise
As well as above -
BL does not have everything - Referrals: libraries, archives, institutions and relevant web sites and free online resources.
Networked printing accounts: and self-service copying and scanning.
Copy counters: staff sell USB sticks, pencils, can credit print accounts and assist with assessing collection material for copying, advise on copyright and help with printing and scanning processes.
Document supply: primarily for business – BL processing charge PLUS publishers’ copyright charge
Inter-library loans: lending collection items available through public and college libraries but not through the reading rooms
Imaging services: available through our web site remotely at home or in the reading rooms.
Images online:
Mention that there are other workshops available which they can attend - refer to other sessions (eg databases) which overlap slightly with this one
Mention any handouts (if being provided)
Feedback - we'd be very grateful for any feedback they'd like to give on today's session. Tomorrow they'll receive a feedback survey via email as well as some information about the Reading Rooms which they should find useful. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.
Mention the ‘ask a reference team’ service, should they have any more in depth subject queries, or to speak to someone in the relevant Reading Room.
