The Changing Nature of Libraries in the Digital Age

The Changing Nature of Libraries in the Digital Age

Aly Conteh

Head of Digital Research & Digital Curator TeamBritish Library

CALIBER 2013, Gandhinagar 21 March 2013

The collection includes well over 150 million items in most known languages

3 million new items are added every year

We have manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, patents, sound recordings, and philatelic items.

On-site space for over 1,200 readers

Treasures include Magna Carta, Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook, The Times first edition from 18 March 1788, and Beatles manuscripts

‘By the year 2000, the British Library will be a major centre for the storage of and access to digital texts required for research.’

‘By the year 2005, our digital collection will be enormous and growing at a huge rate.’

‘….. Becoming a major centre for the capture, storage and transmission of electronic documents…’

‘…we are seeking to make our collection better known and more widely available by exploiting the increasing use of computer networks…’

All of these things are possible now, but “building the technical framework and associated services will take many years (Borgman, 2006)

Priorities and aspirations for the next decade

Guarantee access for future generations

Enable access to everyone who wants to do research

Support research communities in key areas for social and economic benefit

Enrich the cultural life of the nation

Lead and collaborate in growing the world’s knowledge base

Digital Scholarship Department

“Ensure the Library develops its strategy and service propositions to enable and support digital scholarship activities”

A Digital Research & Curator Team to act as the transformation engine

Developing the skills needed to support researchers working with digital content

Providing and supporting the tools that support digital scholarship

Providing data in the ways that our users require

BL Labs

Challenges

Can we provide enough content?

Can we legally provide access to content in the ways that researchers require?

Are our digital infrastructures up to the job?

Are we flexible enough to deal with this changing landscape?

Thank You

www.bl.uk

aly.conteh@bl.uk@aconteh