Discovering the Importance of the British Library





Our class attended a presentation and tour at the British Library. Hedley Sutton of the Asian and African Studies Reference Services provided an overview of how the British Library functions. Sutton has been employed at the library for 42 years and had lots to share. The library staff numbers an estimated 1,000- 1,100 employees. They care for a collection of about 170 million items with new items being added each day. It is a multimedia and multilanguage collection, but does not collect film. The size of the collection is too big for the library building. Four storage basements are beneath the building and there is a storage facility in Yorkshire to house the massive amounts of materials. The collection is not weeded. Decanted materials might be sent to the Yorkshire facility. 

I learned quickly that the British Library is not a lending library though it is open to the public. Instead of lending out materials, the library offers reading room access to those with a reader's card. Individuals over the age of 18 can provide two forms of ID to secure their reader's card. In the past, potential readers had to prove that they had tried to access the material from other sources and been unsuccessful. The British Library was used as a last resort. Today, the collection is accessible within the reading rooms and even via interlibrary loan. When materials go to other libraries, they must be consulted on the premises of the loaning library. The library also operates a membership program where individuals subscribe for access to paid exhibits, newsletters, private rooms, etc. 

My main interest when visiting cultural institutions is to learn what programs they are implementing that link conservation to the sharing of diverse perspectives. The British Library has the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP). It began in 2004 with funding from a Swedish family who wished to aid in digitizing at risk archives from around the world. The goal of the EAP is to preserve cultural heritage and make it available to a wide audience. According to the British Library's website, the EAP has digitized more than thirteen million images and 35,000 sound tracks. Copies of these are available to the public via the British Library's online archive. Participation in the EAP is application based. Digitization training  and equipment is provided to local staff along with project funds. 

Relevant links:
https://www.bl.uk/ 
https://eap.bl.uk/ 

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