A general talk on the British Library Collections and Services given to staff at the TIB, Hannover Germany in May 2017

1. British Library: Collections, Services
and Trends
Paul Allchin, Science Reference Specialist,
BA, MSc, CILIP, PGCAPHE, FHEA

2. www.bl.uk
Wo ich arbeite:Euston Road, St. Pancras, London
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3. www.bl.uk
Einfuhrung: Wer bin Ich?
• Ich habe 30 Jahre fur die British Bibliothek gearbeitet, uber 20 Jahre
im der Referenz bedienung Abteilung.
• Von 1985 bis 1999 war ich im patentrecht Abteilung, Patent Office
Library, London, wo ich bibliothek Fuhrungen geleitet,
Wissenschafliche und Medicinische Referenz fragen geantworted und
war vorantwortlich fur CD ROMS, Web Blatter, und Bibliothek
Suchmachine unterrich gegeben fur unsere Kunde und neu mitarbeiter
• Von 1999 bis 2015 war ich im eine ahnliche role im unsere new
Gebaude immer dabei unsere Forschungs Leserschaft zu helfen
• Von 2016/17 arbeitete ich im beide Wissenschaftliche Inhalts und
reference teams und habe mehr mit Verlage Betriebe gehabt
• Ich bin glucklich ich dieses mal etwas von Ihnre AV Portal und RADAR
learnen durfte und mit Ihre “Software and Services for Science
conference“ teilnehmen konnte.
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Aim of this talk:
• To share a brief overview, a few impressions and a
flavour of the British Library and it´s collections,
services and trends for the future.
• For any detailed questions please contact me at:
paul.allchin(at)bl.uk
• Statistics can be found in the annual report:
https://www.bl.uk/aboutus/annrep/2015to2016/annual-report2015-16.pdf
• 2015/16 Gov Grant in Aid : 93 million pounds plus we earned 20/30% income
• Half a million visitors to the reading rooms
• Almost 6 million web site visitors
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The British Library: sketch
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St. Pancras Building:Unsere London Gebaude 1
• Architekt war Sir St. John Wilson (Sandy Wilson und seine
Frau)
• Wir haben 11 Lese Sale im London und ein im Boston Spa
• Unsere Bibliothek Inhalt ist unterscheitlich von Alt bis Neue
Buche, im Druck und Elektronisch und im alle Fache
• 1200 Lese Sitzplatze
• 4 Doppelte Untergeschosse fur Abstellraume/Lagerung
• Grundungstein gelegt bei Prinz Charles im 1982 und geoffnet
im Juni 1998 bei seiner Mutter Konigen Elizabeth
• Wir haben1000 personnel im London und 500 im Boston Spa
• 5 Etage untergrund und 9 Etage von grund stock
• Gebaut im London Tonboden mit Pfahle
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Unsere London
Gebaude 2:
• Deiser Bibliothek ist gebaut
fur mehr als 200 Jahre
• Gekostet uber £500 million
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The Welcome team: Front of House Services
• Reader registration: based on research need, business & IP
information access
• Public tours of the building
• General information point for visitors
• Issues visitor passes
• Registration policy has been liberalised over the last 12 years,
we have changed from a library of last resort, needing
academic references to use us, to a library of first and last
resort requiring only ID and a research topic – less elitist
• Reader passes are issued for 1 day to max 3 years
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The Kings Library und Studium Raum
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The Kings Library Tower
• Gestaltet von Arkitekt Sandy Wilson nach Yale Universitat
• 6 Stock hoch mit Treppe und 2 Fahstuhle drin
• Bucherwande rollenangelgert
• kontrollierte Atmosphäre, 16 Grad, 50% Luftfeuchtigkeit
• Deiser Alter Bucher kommen von uberall im Europa/America
und war gesammalt von George III (1760-1820), Elector of
Hannover
• 85,000 Bande,(1450s – 1830s), gemischte Fache, im Englisch
und Latinisch, und andere Europanische Sprachen
• Sammlung entheilt Isaac Newton Opticks (1704), Shakespear
First Folio Plays (1623), Gutenberg Bible (1454/55), Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales, William Caxton (1475/77)
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British Library: Collections/Sammlungen
• 14+ million Buche
• 60 million+ Patent Dokumenten
• 2.5 million+ Land und andere Karten
• 300,000+ Manuskripten
• 8+ millionen Briefmarken
• Viele andere Sammlungen von Photos, Musik, Kunst Stucke ..
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Collection Development and Storage
3 ingest processes
• Legal deposit: via
print LD, and ELD/NPLD
• Purchase: budget constraints,
especially in sciences
• Donations/bequests
• Stock storage:
open access in RR
London basements
Boston Spa ASBs
Boston Spa storage
• E-resources, bks/Ps/DBs (+/-?)
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Library Services: Unsere Bibliothek Angebote
• Exhibitions: Russian Revolution, Harry Potter and
Western Magic! (Check web site!)
• Learning programme: schools, teachers support, adult
education and local community development/inclusion
• Commercial services: shop, brand licensing, images
online, image permissions & fine art prints, Imaging and
Digitization Services
• 11 Reading rooms: Lesesalen mit referenz bedenungen
und Buch lieferung
• Onsite Kopie, Scanning etc in reading rooms,
(free photography allowed)
• DataCite hub
• Document supply
• Interlibrary lending and public lending rights for authors
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Living Knowledge: Purpose and Priorities
Roly Keating, Chief Executive
• https://www.bl.uk/aboutus/foi/pubsch/pubscheme3/living-
knowledge-2015-2023.pdf
“We make our intellectual heritage accessible to every one,
for research, inspiration and enjoyment” 2015.
The British Library’s 6 key purposes:
• Custodianship: we build, curate and preserve the UK’s national collection of
published, written and digital content.
• Research: we support and stimulate research of all kinds.
• Business: we help businesses to innovate and grow.
• Culture: we engage everyone with memorable cultural experiences.
• Learning: we inspire young people and learners of all ages.
• International: we work with partners around the world to advance knowledge
and mutual understanding.
These aims are implemented by portfolio work packages in each department,
e.g. “Available for All” (Open access, problematic to achieve!)
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Living Knowledge Network
• https://www.bl.uk/projects/living-
knowledge
• Supporting the UK Library System.
The “Living Knowledge Network” is an innovative
partnership in response to our mission with 21 major
libraries across the UK, and in partnership with the
National Library of Scotland and the National Library
of Wales. Together we will share resources, skills and
ideas, promoting the enduring values of libraries in
the twenty-first century and reinforcing the idea of the
library as a transformative and accessible public
asset.
https://www.bl.uk/projects/living-
knowledge#sthash.3SyaKWI7.dpuf
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British Library: 11 London based Reading Rooms:
(Organised by subject not format)
• BIPC: Business and IP/inventions
• Science 2 and 3: medical and physical sciences
• Social Science: education, law, politics, economics, official
publications from governmennts, UN, EU, etc.
• India, Africa and Oriental Collections
• NewsRoom: UK national & local newspapers, digital, MF &
print
• Humanities 1 and 2 / Digital Humanities (+/- comput?)
• Rare Books and Music
• Manuscipts
• Maps
• Boston Spa Reading Room, Yorkshire, North England
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BIPC: Business and Intellectual Property Centre
• Supports SMEs, Small and medium sized enterprises/business
• Details at: https://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre
• Advice on business start-ups, IP, markets, contacts, etc.
• A business collection of databases, journals, books and
reference specialists
• Networking area where events are organised for new business
entrepeneurs
• Ex-LDA/EU funded service shell around the reading room
Example: “market“ for setting up a life coaching business for
actors!
• Business counselling:weeding the unviable business proposals
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NewsRoom:Newspaper Reading Room & Lounge
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Replaced Colindale
Newspaper Library in
North London 2014/15
Accessing newspapers
as:
• Print
• E
• MF/Microfilms

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Digital Scholarship:
• BL Labs programme:
• Staff training programme for digital awareness in libraries:
workshops on digital curation, crowd sourcing etc
• Digitization projects supported
• Advice and guidance for other departments involved in digital
curation and digitization
• Input into the new planned digital/Computational/Multimedia
Reading Room Facilities
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Research Services:
• Collection development and curation
• Researcher engagement
• DataCite and RDM strategy
http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/digi/datasets/datacitefaq/fa
qhome.html
• Management and Business Studies Portal
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/socsci/prodandserv/productsands
ervices.html
• Social policy portal
• Electoral registers online
• Blogs: http://www.bl.uk/blogs/
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Sound: Sound Server, Music & Audio
Details at: http://www.bl.uk/subjects/sound Includes link to Sound and Moving
Image catalogue
• Direct audio files for listening on head phones in reading rooms, on
dedicated pcs.
• “Listening service” in rare books and music reading room: needs to be
booked in advance
• Collections guides and blog
• Wildlife and environmental sounds:
http://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/wildlife-and-environmental-sounds
• Voices of science: http://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science
• These tell the stories of some of the most remarkable scientific and engineering
discoveries of the past century using oral history interviews with prominent British
scientists and engineers http://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science#sthash.RyqV5dl2.dpuf
(Oral histories of scientists recorded)
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Many other services and activities at the BL
• ECCLES Centre for North American Studies
• Endangered Archives Programme
• St. Pancras Transformed Programme
• Boston Spa Renewed Programme
• BL membership scheme: access to private bar, lounge etc
• Regular free and fee basd events, lectures, workshops talks
etc in the conference centre
• Improved catering and restaurant and cafe facilities
• Web archiving: UK domain crawled from 2013
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Trends:
• BL as a hybrid library: content migration from print to digital
• Multiformats and digital multimedia: computational digital services being planned
• Ever greater user outreach and researcher engagement
• Balance of print document supply and inter-library lending moving to UK heritage
print/digital storage business models e.g. research data, HE & public archives etc
• More study space for registered & un-registered readers
• Further growth of BL as cultural events hub, free & fee based
• IT infrastuctre upgrade in next 2-4 years supporting growth of remote services, cloud
and open data access
• For sciences move from „Just-in-case“ to usage driven science & technology
colection development, „use it or loose it“ especially e-resources
• Leasing space: Alan Turing Institute, Future Learn (OU/MOOCS)
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Reflections: Roles of National Libraries
the in 21 st Century
• We face similar challenges, changing patterns of research,
impact of technology, questions of relevency to users, ensuring
value for public money and investment …
Take home messages: key roles of national libraries –
• To act as social, cultural and knowledge catalytsts
• To remain centres of learning, research and re-vitalization
• Promote values of social democracy and open critical enquiry
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Vielen Dank fur Ihrem Aufmarksamkeit
Haben Sie etwa Fragen?
Discussion on role of National Libraries?
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