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.
On 10th February 2010, Dame Lynne Brindley spoke to the society on the history and future of the National Library.
National Libraries
The British National Library is one of the oldest, and largest, national libraries in the world. As Dame Lynn told the society, it has 2000 staff in three main sites, and has an annual budget of almost 130 million pounds. Each year, the library acquires copies of all published material in the UK, requiring 8 miles of new shelving.
A national library is the memory of a nation. The various functions they serve differ from country to country, but all contain central elements: preservation of a nation's written culture, support for research (both national and international), etc. They are an obvious symbol of national pride. Often libraries in general, supported by a national library, are a means by which the lives of people may be improved and literacy and learning promoted.
Our National Library can be thought to have started with the donation of the library of King George III to the nation in the 18th Century. It wasn't until the 19th century, however, that legislation was passed requiring deposit of copies of all printed material to the library by publishing houses. The Library also holds significant collections of foreign literature, though it has in more recent times lost its status as possessing the world's largest collection of foreign literature.
National libraries, though possessing certain core features and aspirations, are quite different - intriguingly so. For instance, the National Library of Bhutan is currently occupied with saving the historical records stored in the nation's multitudinous monasteries, many of them largely inaccessible - and this with a staff of only 30. The National Library of South Africa - a post-apartheid creation - has been important in aiding disadvantaged students from all over the country. Less happily, the Iraqi National Library suffered from extensive looting in the immediate aftermath of the recent invasion. The head librarian doggedly persevered through this, and is now slowly rebuilding the collection.
The Age of Digitisation
The importance of digital resources has been increasingly acknowledged by national libraries - both the digitisation of existing materials, and the collection of digital media. The latter can pose special challenges. Websites, on average, have a life span of only six weeks. Hence libraries need to collaborate amongst themselves and with other organisations to store all this information.
The digitisation of rare materials has provided at times surprisingly popular resources. The Dunhuang manuscripts, documenting a host of matters from the 5th till the 11th century, have proved to be useful resources for those travelling the Silk Road in contemporary times. The Codex Sinaiticus - the earliest surviving copy of the New Testament - received 100 million hits when it was first made available to be viewed online.
Many challenges remain for the National Libraries in the digital age. Private companies such as Google represent possible rivals to the National Libraries and their mission to preserve a country's written culture: copyright issues often being unclear. More funding is still needed for preservation, and more investment is needed, especially for training. But National Libraries are now providing a wider range of services - nationally and internationally - than ever before.