Lynne Brindley has been Chief Executive of the British Library since 2000, and she is the first information professional, and woman, to have held the position. Since her appointment Lynne has led a major strategic development and modernisation programme to ensure that the BL remains relevant, innovative and accessible in the 21st century. Lynne is active in high level international, European and national bodies concerned with media and information society initiatives, digital infrastructure and libraries, and cultural and public sector leadership.
The environment in which national libraries operate is changing rapidly, driven by technological developments. We are currently on the cusp of the digital age. Information is ubiquitous: 500 million web pages are just a keystroke away. The way people can, and expect to, access information is being revolutionised. The challenge we face as leaders of national libraries is to determine how we should be connecting to the global digital space based on the Web and how we might best realise the opportunities for actively exploiting our collections and expertise within that rich, interactive, digital environment and opening it up to the world. There is a great variety in national libraries and this talk will provide examples of current and future national library activities showing the range and diversity of mission, before focusing on the British Library itself. The British Library is unique in its wide scope of activities and services, but its role as it is developing in the 21st century shares much in common with other national and research libraries around the world.