Unlocking the top 20,000 titles

01 June 2005 :: Posted by Lawrence Christensen

British Library launches new research resource

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and independent researchers are to benefit from a versatile new pay-as-you-go service launched today by the British Library. BRITISH LIBRARY DIRECT provides, for the first time, access to a fully searchable database of article titles from the top 20,000 international research journals. These records go back five years and currently number around nine million - with 150,000 new entries added each month.

Upon finding the relevant article, the user can then order it online and pay by his/her credit card to have the full text delivered to their desktop within as little as 2 hours. There is no need to subscribe in order to use the service and articles can be ordered singly or several at a time. Nearly 20% of the articles available can be downloaded instantly. To sample the new service, visit: http://direct.bl.uk

British Library Direct will be particularly attractive to occasional users such as SMEs and independent researchers and innovators. The pay-as-you-go option offers easy access to the very latest research articles without the need to open an account.

Subject strengths include medicine, pharmacy, engineering, science, food and agriculture, economics, environment, law and education. An additional feature allows users to view abstracts of the articles found by rolling their mouse over the article details.

Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive at the British Library said, "We exist for everyone who wants to do research and have been working hard to make our collection more accessible and relevant. The launch of British Library Direct is another significant step towards that goal. It offers the academic, personal and commercial researcher ready access to our most popular journals without the need to be a registered user or have an account with us."

For further information please contact: Ben Sanderson at the British Library Press Office (telephone +44 (0)1937 546126, email: ben.sanderson@bl.uk) or Lawrence Christensen (telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7114, email: lawrence.christensen@bl.uk)

Notes for editors

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation. It includes: books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk.