Joanna Newman's presentation at the JISC Digital Content Partnerships Event on 28th October 2010

1. TITLE
Dr Joanna Newman, Head of Higher Education,
The British Library
Digital Content – The British Library Vision

2. 2
1.The British Library Collections and the challenges ahead:
2.What is the British Library’s vision for its content?
3.Being ambitious, strategic and thinking big…
4.Building content through partnerships…
5.Digital Unification…
6.The Digital Library Programme
7.The Vision ahead: a one stop shop for content

3. 3
1. The British Library Collections and the
Challenges ahead…
 “We exist for everyone who wants to
do research – for academic, personal
or commercial purposes”
 Our collections cover all known
subject areas; sciences, technology,
medicine, arts & humanities, social
sciences…
 We have a copy of every item
published in the UK
 Our collections cover all formats;
sound, images, video, newspapers,
maps, manuscripts, databases,
books and journals, much more…

4. 4
Collecting new content: The Web Archive

5. 5
Collecting new content: http://www.bl.uk/sportandsociety/index.htm

6. 6
Voices of the UK
Creating a multi-disciplinary resource

7. 77
What is the British Library’s Vision for its digital content?

8. 8
3.Being ambitious, creative and thinking big… The British Library’s
collections offer the finest single resource for South Asian studies in the
world.
• India Office Records — a vast
body of material and a rich and
unique official record of British
involvement with Asia, as well as
a very substantial archive of
private papers.
• Visual materials of
internationally significance —
art by British artists in India and
one of the most extensive
collections of early photography.
• Exceptional holdings in
manuscripts across South Asian
languages and scripts.
• Unparalleled collections of
books, serials and newspapers in
a wide range of vernacular
languages, as well as books
about South Asia in Western
languages.

9. 9
Science and the changing environment in India 1780-1920: a guide
to sources in the India Office Records
From J McClelland’s report
on the Botanic Garden,
1846
Board’s Collections,
IOR/F/4/2219 no110061

10. 10
4.Building content through partnerships…
Partnership Projects:
EthOS
Digi Islam
Access to Collections:
Archival Sound Recordings
British Library Newspapers Online
Management & Business Studies
Portal
Market Research:
Google Generation report
Researchers of Tomorrow study

11. 11
http://sounds.bl.uk/

12. 12
Archival Sound Recordings
Preserving global culture
Amakondere players: Samuel Kahunde
2008
“I found the audio fantastic to work with.
The realism of it inspired students and
encouraged them to source other material
beyond Google searches.
As a tutor I maybe too often stand there
and give my opinion about somebody’s
work. Listening to interviews allows
students to hear from the photographer
themselves what’s behind the images.”
Amanda Broadley, Photography Tutor,
Joseph Priestley College
“The Wachsmann Uganda Recordings
are extremely useful. In Bunyoro
kingdom for example, an official recently
told me that they had instruments that
are not played because nobody knows
the skills and their music. I feel that the
music can be restored through listening
to the digital sounds that are in the British
Library archives.”
Samuel Kahunde, PhD ethnomusicology
student, Sheffield University
“The Oral History of Recorded Sound
collection provides valuable interviews with
those directly involved in the development
of stereo recording technique and
commercial decision making. As periods of
technical experimentation, the processes
are often poorly documented and these first
hand accounts provide an invaluable insight
into the methods employed,”
Ewan Gordon, PhD music technology
student, University of York

13. 13
British Library Newspapers
 19th
C digitised Newspapers
 Free to HE and FE
 50 titles, 10 million articles
 Focus on regional
 Changing language and
context
 Just the tip of the iceberg
Manchester Times and Gazette, Sep 12
1835

14. 14
Digital Unification: Pre-1600 Manuscript Digitization
IDP, Mewar Ramayana, Codex Sinaiticus….

15. 15

16. 16
Long term digital innovation and storage: the Digital Library
Programme
 A state of the art digitisation suite
 Currently used to digitise theses (350 page A4 books) with pull
outs, CDs, variously sized inserts, etc.
 Newspapers
 Delicate material e.g. Indian office ephemera
 Expert staff with many years digitisation experience
 Digital Library Programme
 Mission: to enable the United Kingdom to preserve and use its
digital output forever.
 Creating a management system for digital objects that will ingest,
store and preserve any type of digital material in perpetuity.
 Content includes:Digitised materials donated to the Library under
voluntary arrangements;Digitised versions of parts of our own
printed collections
 Innovative new systems to support storage of material, discovery,
digitisation, supply, etc (or any combination)
 We want to explore with institutions development of new services
for appropriate material types.

17. 17
The vision ahead: working in partnership to provide access to
content and knowledge.
Partnerships with JISC, BBC, SCA way forward for a one
stop shop for researchers….
BBC at the BL in January 2011
Growing Knowledge: the evolution of research
12 October 2010 – 16 July 2011
 new exhibition of innovative digital tools and technologies
 Visit onsite in the British Library or online and tell us what
you think
 Join one of our evaluation sessions specifically for
researchers
www.bl.uk/growingknowledge
#blgk
For evaluation sessions contact -
infostudies-survey@ucl.ac.uk