Redefining a great library in the 21st century

Masked Chinese players entertain the lunchtime crowds with a performance from the Silk Road.

The challenges for libraries in the digital age are particularly acute for the British Library, which has achieved its reputation because of the scale and scope of its collection, its celebrated Reading Rooms, and its international Document Supply services. Clearly, we’ll continue to collect print, manuscripts and other traditional material on a large scale. However, in today’s world that is not sufficient: there are new challenges we must address.

We serve an unusually broad range of audiences with researchers, businesses, education, the general public and the library network all benefiting from our services and collection.
The value we bring is essentially three-fold: we are a critical resource for UK research; we underpin business and enterprise through our contribution to knowledge transfer, creativity and innovation; and we are a world-class cultural institution with a vital role as a holder of the national memory. Given the breadth of our agenda, identifying our priorities is essential – and challenging. What steps must we take to ensure our vitality in the digital age?

In setting our strategy for 2005 – 2008, our first step was to speak directly to our main users – people who are doing research for academic, personal or commercial purposes – and the organisations and institutions that support and benefit from their work. We also assessed the technological, economic and social pressures that we anticipate will have an impact on their way of working and on ours. Pages 4 to 11 summarise the findings from this research.

The mission, vision and six strategic priorities that we’ve developed.

Throughout our review, the key factor driving change was the impact of the web and Internet technologies. The increased take-up of the Internet across society and the importance of e-service provision has been reflected in our own accelerated migration of services to the web over the past five years. That programme will continue, and we’ll extend our web services and resources, making them as easy to use as possible. Our collection offers something for everyone, and we’ll continue to develop new ways to support learning and personal enrichment as well as research.

An exhibition of specially designed WiFi furniture gave users a new angle on the future.

In light of the impact of technology, the UK must develop a digital research information infrastructure. This infrastructure, including content, hardware and applications, is needed to support the research process within a digital environment. The British Library has an important role to play, and we are collaborating with others to scope what’s needed. It’s vital that we work together to develop a sustainable framework with consistent standards that will meet the needs of researchers both today and in the future.

Partnerships and collaboration are critical to every aspect of our strategic agenda. Our partners, from the public, private and non-profit sectors, are too numerous to name individually but their contribution is essential. We hope that publishing this strategy will stimulate a dialogue about how we move forward together. Developing strategy is a continuous process and there are always further questions to consider. Over the next year we’ll be taking forward important work on our collection development and expertise strategies. We’ll also be refining our cultural and international strategies and our approach to the Home Countries and English Regions. We’re working with libraries in this country and overseas to provide leadership and to sustain the British Library as a great national library.

To fulfil our goals we need the same foresight and determination that the Library’s founders had when they brought together the original collections in 1753 to be ‘preserved therein for publick use, to all posterity’, providing access to the world’s knowledge for ‘all studious and curious persons’.

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