Financial Summary
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Financial summary ● The British Library Board generated total income of £110.26 million, of which £82.27 million came from grant in aid.The £82.27 million comprised: operational Income and future Resources expended grant in aid of £81.78 million, an increase of just over projections The Library spent 110.91 million 1% on the comparative figure for 1999-2000; £0.4 The Library receives grant in aid during the year.The chart provides a million earmarked for the purpose of restructuring the (GIA) from the Government and breakdown of expenditure on the also generates income through Library’s main functions. Library; and £0.09 million which was drawn down from document supply and other the funds retained by the Department for Culture activities. Media and Sport from 1999-2000 for use on the Library’s delayed PFI project (the Corporate 4.58 Bibliographic Programme). A further £2.21 million 6.38 £82.69m 3.04 remains with the Department for completion of the £81.78m £78.47m 6.24 Corporate Bibliographic Programme. 27.85 ● The Library’s other income, at £28.00 million, decreased by 17.3%.The most significant change related to sales income, which fell by 14% on 1999-2000 to 21.62 41.20 £24.49 million.This was partly the result of falling demand in UK document supply, but it also arose from £33.87m £31.94m the transition from the sale of prepaid forms to an £28.00m Collection management invoicing and billing system at the Library’s Document Collection development Supply Centre.The Library undertook a fundamental Access to collection Wider public access review of its remote document supply services and Bibliographic services will implement a flexible strategy for providing services Operational GIA Other income Operational GIA Other income Operational GIA Other income Reference/information services Leadership, partnership & co-operation within the context of short to medium-term 1 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 Total 110.91 market uncertainties. 1. Figures for 2001-02 are forecasts. Twenty-eighth Annual Report and Accounts 2000-01 Summary he British Library is at a critical and exciting stage of its history.With advances in information technology and increasing expectations from stakeholders we face Tunprecedented opportunities and challenges. In response, we are focusing on the potential of the Internet to make collections and services accessible to an ever-wider public.The British Library Public Catalogue, which went online this year, is now our most heavily used service and the appearance of the digitised Gutenberg Bible on the BL website was greeted with much public interest. Such pioneering developments point to a future in which the Library can play a leading role in the UK knowledge and cultural economy. Against this background, one of the Library’s priorities this year has been to undertake a full-scale process of strategic review.The conclusions are set out in New Strategic Directions for the British Library, a document that will form the basis of a wide-ranging consultation during the summer of 2001. Our new strategy builds on existing Library priorities, but gives stronger emphasis to: ● Building partnerships and working in collaboration with a range of different institutions. ● Repositioning the British Library more firmly within the national The pictures feature some of the people and international library network. who used the British Library last year – showing how they used the collections to ● Focusing more deliberately on understanding our users (and potential users) further their education, to help in their and aiming to meet their needs. work or for inspiration. ● Widening access to our collections and services. Photography by Trevor Ray Hart ● Accelerating the Library’s e-strategy, including digitisation, digital collecting and digital archiving. Building the digital vision This significant and positive shift of direction for the Library It is relatively easy to talk about our digital vision, but in was warmly welcomed by universities, the Government, and by Autumn 2000 we took a critical step forward when we the UK library network. contracted with IBM to provide a digital content store.This Of equal importance to the Library is our wish to develop will enable the Library to store and preserve digital materials – partnerships with public libraries in the UK. We have signalled both new acquisitions and material digitised from our historical new opportunities to work together with public libraries in collections – for the benefit of future generations. widening access and integrating learning provision.To this end, We need a system of legal deposit for the electronic age if a number of projects are being funded – through the Library’s the British Library is to maintain its contribution to national Co-operation and Partnership Programme – to encourage life. During the year we worked with publishers, the other legal practical collaborative developments. deposit libraries, and with the DCMS, to put into practice a We are working productively with Resource (the Council voluntary code. However, the importance of archiving for Museums,Archives and Libraries) to advance shared significant material held on the Web is now a matter of urgent commitments to regional cultural and library provision.We are and international concern.We hope that Parliament will find developing a pilot partnership with the North-East Museums, the legislative time in 2001 to introduce the long-awaited Archives and Libraries Council, which we regard as an statute to extend legal deposit to electronic media. exemplar of how a leading national institution might work We were encouraged by a recent House of Commons together with a major English region. Culture Media and Sport Committee report urging the Library to improve access by digitising internationally Opportunities and challenges important books and manuscripts, and making the images Core operational work of the British Library has continued freely available on the Internet. During the year we have apace. Reader visits to St Pancras rose this year and the number gained external funding for many digitisation projects – from of visitors to our exhibition galleries exceeded expectations. foundations, government challenge sources, sponsorship, and by However, it is in the area of Internet access that increases are participating in a dot.com enterprise. But the question of how most dramatic – with use of the Library’s catalogue on the Web to fund such digital enterprises in the long-term remains a increasing by 24% during the year.Yet the annual intake of major concern for us. printed material under legal deposit shows no signs of diminishing. Legal deposit intake increased in volume by 12% Changing needs last year and the collections continue to grow at the rate of During the year we concluded fundamental reviews of patents 9.5km per annum, reinforcing the need to obtain more long- provision and of our collection development policy. Collection term storage capacity to meet future collection growth. building, guided by curatorial expertise, must and will remain a Serious questions were raised, during the year, about the core activity. However, tight budgets mean that our collection Library’s policy and practice of disposing of overseas development strategy will have to be more selective and newspapers following microfilming. In response to the transparent, and take serious account of publishing inflation concerns expressed about the adequacy of microfilm as a levels and changing patterns of publication and usage. surrogate for the longer term, the Board suspended further The British Library Document Supply Centre (DSC) disposals while a review of the quality of the Library’s provides important services to support the national and microfilm copies was conducted.At the time of writing, the international library system.As electronic publishing becomes Board awaits the outcome of that review. But it is clear that the more common remote document supply is experiencing rapid combined pressures of paper deterioration, together with the change.Alternative sources of supply are emerging, and space and environmental costs associated with the storage of customers (particularly in the higher education sector) are newspapers, are such that under current funding arrangements entering into direct licensing arrangements with publishers. the Library will not be able to retain and preserve all the In the light of this we conducted a comprehensive review of original newspapers in its collection. remote document supply activities. Its aim was to determine The recent structural reforms of the top tiers of how best to mitigate the effects of reduced demand and management have brought about a more coherent and consequent revenue shortfalls in the short-term and to identify streamlined organisation, enabling the Library to deliver new new opportunities for the medium to long-term.We have and enhanced services and giving strategy and delivery the identified a sustainable way forward that will be responsive to impetus they need.Taken together – the opportunities and unpredictable medium and long-term developments. challenges presented by new technology, the high expectations of stakeholders, the Library’s difficult financial prospects, and Collaboration and partnership the associated strategic imperatives – everything points to a This has been an important year for building new collaborative future in which the only certainty is major continuing change. relations with libraries, scholars and organisations all over the The achievements