Bringing knowledge to life
23 July 2008
Behind-the-scenes video clips of users and staff feature in British Library’s online Annual Report 2007/08
What links…
- A best-selling novelist?
- A nanotechnology researcher?
- An award-winning entrepreneur?
- A South African sound archivist?
Find out now by visiting the British Library's online Annual Report and Accounts 2007/08 at www.bl.uk/knowledge
The online Report features video clips of the Library's users talking about how we have inspired and supported them. It also offers behind-the-scenes insights into how the expertise of our staff underpins the success of our users, along with links to related resources and examples of collection items such as historic maps and sound recordings of oral history and wildlife.
Stef Penney's novel, 'The Tenderness of Wolves' won the Costa Book Prize 2006 and went on to become one of the best-selling UK fiction titles of 2007. In one of the featured videos, Stef reveals how she used the Library's Reading Rooms at St Pancras to research life in the backwoods in 19th century Canada:
"When I started I really didn't know what the story was going to be, but I soon found a wealth of material in the Canadian collections. The Library gives you an amazing freedom to develop ideas in an open-ended and organic way… …there are no time constraints and I found books that I just wouldn't have found anywhere else. Without that, I couldn't have written my book."
Every webpage gives users the opportunity to offer feedback or respond to a poll, and animated charts and video presentations by the Chairman and Chief Executive offer an overview of how the Library has performed this year. Achievements detailed in the British Library Annual Report 2007/08 include:
- 200,000 visitors for Sacred: Discover what we share, our most successful exhibition ever
- 93% satisfaction rate for users of the Reading Rooms
- More than six million individual users of the British Library website www.bl.uk
- £18,260,000 of efficiency savings
The Chief Executive of the British Library, Dame Lynne Brindley, said: "The past year has been one of challenge and achievement for the British Library and, as always, we have focused our energies on meeting, and where possible exceeding, the high standards rightly expected of this world-class institution. I am really confident in our continuing ability to deliver an unrivalled service to our users, investing in innovation to ensure long-term success."
For further information please contact: Ben Sanderson at the British Library Press Office (telephone +44(0)1937 546126, email: ben.sanderson@bl.uk) or Jacob Lant (telephone +44(0)20 7412 7110, email: jacob.lant@bl.uk)
Notes for Editors
- The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. 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 British Library's collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk