Our mission is ‘advancing the world’s knowledge’ and many of our activities on the global stage involve international partnerships. For some years we have supported the Iraq National Library and Archives, and this year saw funding to digitise some 50,000 records from our India Office collections relating to Iraq as a contribution to the virtual reconstruction of their historic collections. In conjunction with the Aga Khan Trust, an exhibition of digital copies of historic photographs of Afghanistan from the Library recently went on display in Kabul, attracting much public and local interest.
The British Library and the National Library of China have worked co-operatively over a number of years, and I was honoured to be invited to speak at their centenary celebrations in autumn 2009 about the international work that the Library undertakes. As China invests heavily in digital library activities we are increasingly seeing new opportunities for partnership. We are also building a number of relationships with key library and archive institutions in India, working with UK Research Councils and a number of Foundations to enrich resources and access to them, and to support new research directions.
This year saw the culmination of a four-year collaboration between the British Library, the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, the University of Leipzig, and St Catherine’s Monastery in completing the virtual re-unification of the Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest surviving Christian Bible. It was made accessible to a global internet audience to huge acclaim, evidenced by some 100 million hits in the first two days of its appearance.
Dame Brindley continues and mentions the Business & IP Centre and the UK Web Archive:
We recently launched the UK Web Archive – a growing collection of thousands of websites, collected by permission of their owners. We have supported the Government this year in its work towards producing regulations which would enable us to collect and preserve for ever the UK’s digital heritage. We all hope for the completion of consultation and the enactment of regulation during 2010/11.
The FreePint Family is a family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success.
'FreePint... provides most of my professional development because it won't come through work and [other resources] just don't cut it.'
FUMSI Forum: Do you have a research question? Post it to the FUMSI Forum, where professionals share Q&A and useful tips on how to Find, Use, Manage and Share Information. It's free.
FreePint Shop:
VIP LiveWire:
