The Power of Partnership Thirty-ninth Annual Report and Accounts 2011/12 British Library The Power of Partnership Thirty-ninth Annual Report and Accounts 2011/12 Presented to Parliament pursuant to section 4(3) of the British Library Act 1972. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 11 July 2012 Laid before the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Ministers 11 July 2012 Laid before the National Assembly for Wales by the [First Secretary] 11 July 2012 Laid before the National Assembly for Northern Ireland 11 July 2012 HC 243 SG/2012/97 London: The Stationery Office £21.25 © British Library (2012) The text of this document (this excludes, where present, the Royal Arms and all departmental and agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing that it is reproduced accurately and not in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as British Library copyright and the document title specified. Where third party material has been identified, permission from the respective copyright holder must be sought. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to [email protected] This publication is available for download at www.official-documents.gov.uk This document is also available from our website at www.bl.uk/annualreport2011-12 ISBN: 9780102976212 Printed in the UK for The Stationery Office Limited on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. ID: 2482008 07/12 Printed on 100% recycled paper. The Power of Partnership Contents Chairman’s statement 5 Chief Executive’s statement 7 The Power of Partnership – Transforming access to historic newspapers 9 – Acquiring the earliest intact European book 11 – Reaching out with the BBC 13 –A co­ordinated approach for research data 15 – Developing our collections for researchers 17 Overview of the Library’s main achievements 18 Delivering our strategic priorities 24 Action Plan for 2012/13 29 Key Performance Indicators 30 Statistics 32 Governance and leadership: Directorate Structure 34 Grantsd an Donations 36 Annual Accounts 2011/12 40 www.bl.uk/annualreport2011­12 Welcome to the British Library’s Annual Report and Accounts 2011/12. The Power of Partnership focuses on the Library’s work with leading partners in both the commercial and public sectors to broaden our range of services for users and offer greater access to our collections. 4 Chairman’s statement The British Library makes an essential to the Pigott family for their generous Patrons’ Programme has recruited contribution to the UK’s intellectual, support; we would not have been a record number of new members social, economic and cultural life, able to create such a dazzling and and I very much look forward to supporting key sectors of education successful exhibition without their welcoming more new Patrons to and research. With its unique, world­ commitment. the group in the year ahead. class collections and its unrivalled expertise and services, both onsite The Board welcomed the establishment I should like to take this opportunity and online, the Library is an essential during the year of an independent to pay tribute to Lynne Brindley resource for research and it occupies charitable trust, the British Library who will step down after 12 years as an important place in the cultural Trust. The objects of this charity are Chief Executive of the British Library life of the nation. The British Library to advance and support the objectives at the end of July 2012. Under her is an innovative public sector of the British Library Board and to outstanding leadership, the British organisation that underpins the advance and support the efficient Library has developed as an important knowledge economy. management of other libraries, library major cultural and scholarly institution facilities and information services, in its flagship building at St Pancras The theme of this year’s Annual the support of which is conducive and she has made the Library much Report is The Power of Partnership. or complementary to the work of more accessible to researchers, business In the pages of this Report, you will the British Library. users, and the public. She has led a find many examples of how the wide­reaching strategic development British Library is working with It has been a challenging year for and modernisation programme to leading partners, in both the fundraising due to the difficult ensure that the Library is relevant, commercial and public sectors, to economic climate. Nevertheless, a innovative and accessible in the digital provide a broader range of services remarkable year of activity enabled age. We wish her well in all that she for users and greater access to the us to reach our target of £9 million goes on to do, and we welcome her collections. In particular, major to acquire the St Cuthbert Gospel successor Roly Keating, who will digitisation programmes are for the nation. This success was made start here in September 2012. being carried out at no cost to the possible thanks to the generosity of public purse, extending reach and many hundreds of donors from across adding value. the world and I am extremely grateful to them for enabling us to buy the The Library has performed strongly Gospel. Particular thanks are due during 2011/12 against the targets set to the National Heritage Memorial in its Corporate Business Plan, and it Fund, the Garfield Weston Foundation, has achieved good progress towards the Catherine Cookson Charitable Baroness Blackstone the Board’s Strategy 2011–15. Trust and the Art Fund who, together, Chairman resoundingly endorsed the acquisition This Report describes many highlights of the Gospel. of the year. I was particularly pleased in November to welcome Her Exhibition sponsorship continues Majesty The Queen and His Royal to be a key focus for us and I am Highness The Duke of Edinburgh grateful to Atkins for their generosity to the Library for the opening of in sponsoring Writing Britain: our exhibition Royal Manuscripts: Wastelands to Wonderlands. The Genius of Illumination. The A generous grant from the Paul exhibition, the first to display richly­ Hamlyn Foundation has also enabled illuminated manuscripts from our us to invite a number of young adults Royal collection in such large numbers, from four partner libraries across the included 154 colourful and gilded country to help curate this exhibition. handwritten books, dating between This is a tremendously exciting the 9th and 16th centuries and initiative for us and I am delighted previously belonging to the kings that the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and queens of England. I am indebted has agreed to support it. Finally, the 5 In my review this year, written as the system of legal deposit to cover material that is freely accessible in I prepare to step down as Chief various non­print works. During digital format, through innovative Executive of the British Library, the year the Government announced digitisation programmes. I propose to set the achievements that it was committed to delivering and successes of the past year in Regulations and that it intended to November 2011 saw the launch the broader context of all that the develop Regulations for offline content of the British Newspaper Archive Library has achieved strategically and for online content that can be website which, by the end of the year, and operationally during the period obtained through a harvesting provided online access to over four of my appointment. process. As I write, the Government’s million pages of newspapers from the Consultation on the Draft Legal Library’s collection. This was the first The most essential task of national Deposit Libraries (non­print works) outcome of the Library’s ten­year libraries, and the one that more than Regulations 2013 has just closed and Public Private Partnership initiative any other makes them what they we are hopeful that Regulations will to digitise over 40 million pages from are, is that they are responsible for be passed in 2012/13. the national newspaper collection in acquiring, preserving and making partnership with brightsolid online accessible the publications – of all We have created a technical capability publishing. This ten­year agreement kinds – of the country. Therefore and infrastructure in readiness to is set to deliver the most significant it follows that legal deposit – the enable acquisition and ingest, storage mass digitisation of newspapers the objective of which is to build a and preservation, and discovery and UK has ever seen, making large parts collection of the national literature – access of material received under of this unparalleled resource available must be of fundamental importance. these Regulations. At the heart of online for the first time. this architecture is the creation of a In my first Chief Executive’s Review preservation­quality Digital Library Also, the Library announced an in 2000/01, I wrote: “We need a System to store content assets that important partnership with Google system of legal deposit for the need to be held securely and in to digitise 250,000 out­of­copyright electronic age if the British Library perpetuity. This store currently books (40 million pages) from the is to maintain its contribution to maintains four replicated nodes in Library’s collections over a period national life. Future generations St Pancras, Boston Spa, Aberystwyth of five years. The material will be will judge us severely if electronic and Edinburgh to ensure the long­ selected by the British Library and publications of all kinds have not term integrity of this content. This digitised by Google, with Google been preserved for posterity”. architecture is proven and is readily covering all digitisation costs. This Subsequently I warned of the danger scalable for the volumes of data project will digitise a huge range of creating a ‘digital black hole’ anticipated within the foreseeable of printed books, pamphlets and for future historians and writers future.