1 Strategic Developments at the British Library Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive UK Serials Group, 7 April 2003

2 HIGHLIGHTING THE CHALLENGES Commercial Copying: as clear as mud Managing Information – June 2002 Do Libraries really need books? Chronicle of Higher Education – July 2002 Counting the cost of Online Optimism IWR – October 2002 Second thoughts on ‘bundled’ e-journals Information technology – Sept 2002 Conference doubts merits of library-publisher deals IWR – October 2002 Citing inflation, University slashes journals Cahners Business Information – August 2002 ‘Digital Doomsday Book lasts 15 years, not 1000’ Observer, March 2002

3 DRIVERS FOR CHANGE Changes in research behaviour Changes in library management Changes in publishing systems Concerns over the current business model IPR

4 STRAWMAN 5-10 YEARS HENCE Extensive networking of electronic access Heavy reliance on digital datasets Content providers offering greater multimedia packages Over 50% refereed scholarly material born digital Fixed price rather than pay per use business model Libraries become electronic gatekeepers and navigators Publisher consortia larger but reduced margins Digital archiving/preservation takes on critical role

5 DIGITAL ACQUISITION Our challenge Guaranteeing the integrity of the national published archive What we are doing Working to secure legislation for e-legal deposit Purchasing digital material Establishing licensing agreements with publishers Web harvesting Working with other organisations to co-ordinate collection strategies

6 DIGITAL ARTICLE SERVICES Our challenge Meeting user needs in an evolving market Growing the overall market for information Adding unique value What we are doing Developing ‘e’ tools and delivery services Installing scan on demand Marketing to organisations with low subscription use Adding value through alerts and searching services

7 DIGITAL PRESERVATION & ARCHIVING Our challenge Making our publications accessible to researchers in decades and centuries time What we are doing Defining archiving principles Starting with eDocuments - then other media and multi-media Investigating collaborative approaches Continuing work on the extension of legal deposit Building infrastructures

8 DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT Our challenge Developing infrastructure and policies to support the long-term preservation of and access to digital material in our collections What we are doing Developing a digital preservation store Implementing a new Integrated Library System Collaborating with other institutions on standards bodies to develop best practices

9 COLLABORATION & NEW RELATIONSHIPS Next decade likely to be one of unprecedented change We have the opportunity to work collaboratively to shape the future together I hope that we can use this opportunity