Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The purpose of this is to be the library of 'first instance and last resort;
last resort for those whose primary access is their university, company or
public library and first instance where the Library is the sole convenient
source for the research material they require'.
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The Library, then, has to care for its collections, and 190 professional
staff are dedicated to preserving the print collections. It has also to
provide access to the collections in its readings rooms, which are in the
beautiful new building at St Pancras, London. The building was
completed in 1997 by Colin St John Wilson, with generous public spaces
and seats for 1480 readers. Despite the Library being housed in a state-
of-the-art building, capacity in the reading rooms has been an issue of
controversy. The author Christopher Hawtree reported that he had to
'perch on a windowsill'. The historian Lady Antonia Fraser complained: 'I
had to queue for 20 minutes to get in, in freezing weather. Then I queued
to leave my coat for 20 minutes [at the compulsory check-in]. Then half
an hour to get my books and another 15 minutes to get my coat. I'm told
it's due to students having access now. Why can't they go to their
university libraries? It's become a social gathering.' (Alberge, 2008).
These comments illustrate one of the problems facing the British
Library in the modern world. It is required to satisfy differing
expectations and to provide access to a wide diversity of users. Students
and researchers all need and expect access to scholarly materials. In the
physical world a 15-minute wait is cause for complaint and in the
digital world research indicates that users also show 'impatience in
search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying
their information needs' (CIBER, 2008).
In her introduction to
The British Library Strategy 2008-2011
, the
Chief Executive, Dame Lynne Brindley, sums up the challenge of
providing researchers and students with the critical mass of digital
content they demand:
The environment in which we operate has arguably changed more in the
past two decades than in the preceding two centuries, driven
particularly by technological developments. Such change is gradually
transforming traditional scholarly dependency on the physical library as
a major source for meeting research needs into a complex network of
options, with varying levels of accessibility, authoritativeness and depth.
(British Library, 2007)
