For a number of years we’ve received feedback from Readers asking whether they could take pictures of collection items for research purposes, rather than having to laboriously transcribe extended passages of text. So we’re delighted to announce that, as of 5 January 2015, our current self-service copying arrangements are to be extended to include photography using Readers’ own compact cameras, tablets and mobile phones.

Smartphones and similar devices are already used by researchers for this purpose at institutions including the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library and the National Library of Wales. Reader feedback has been consistently in favour of updating our conditions of use to make such photography possible.

At the same time, we’ve been mindful of the need to minimise the potential for disruption and annoyance to other Readers, and to ensure that Readers are fully aware of the copyright, privacy and data protection laws that apply to so much of the Library’s collections.

For the past year I’ve been working with many teams across the Library to introduce this facility. As well as involving colleagues in the Reader Services and Reference teams, we’ve also consulted with our Collection Care department to make guidance available on how to photograph items without subjecting them to unnecessary wear and tear.

The new arrangements are being introduced in two stages – the first will apply to the following Reading Rooms from 5 January:

• Boston Spa Reading Room
• Humanities – Floor 1 & 2
• Newsroom
• Science – Floor 2 & 3
• Social Sciences

We’ll be reviewing the feedback we get from Readers and staff, before introducing self-service photography in the second tranche of Reading Rooms in March 2015:

• Asian & African Studies
• Business & IP Centre
• Maps
• Manuscripts
• Philatelic
• Rare Books & Music

Please note that we’re continuing to work on guidelines as to which items included in the second stage can be photographed and which cannot – full guidance on this point will be provided in March.

Before using your device to take photographs, you should read our guidelines on self-service photography – you can also watch these videos on photography and collection handling.

Given that this is a substantial change to existing practice in the Reading Rooms, please bear with us as we get to grips with the practicalities of the new arrangements and please also show consideration for your fellow Readers – in particular, make sure your device is switched to silent mode before you start snapping!

If you have any queries about the new service or, from the New Year, comments about how it is being rolled out you can tweet @BL_Ref_Services or speak to our Reading Room staff.

Rachel Austin

Service Improvement Manager

The publishing team at the British Library enjoyed an early Christmas number 1 recently, when Mystery in White – the latest in our Crime Classics series – twice hit the top of the Waterstone’s fiction bestseller charts, published in The Times. This caps an exceptional year for British Library Publishing in which booksellers across the UK have helped us to achieve unprecedented sales growth: since April we have sold more than 155,000 copies of our Crime Classics and more than 60,000 copies of Mystery in White alone.

Best-selling British Library title Mystery in White.

We’re a very small team operating in an environment that is quite tough on independent publishers, so we’re extremely proud of our sales figures: UK trade sales in the crucial month of November were up 400% on the previous year. Independent and international bookshops have all got behind us, but we’ve especially benefited from support from the UK’s largest bookselling chain, Waterstones. Their crime fiction buyer, Joseph Knobbs, commented that ‘the British Library’s Crime Classics imprint offers something a little different, and has been a hand-selling phenomenon for us. Booksellers and customers alike have taken the list to heart.’

Alongside the Crime Classics we’ve continued to enjoy strong sales and exceptional reviews for prestige titles such as A History of the 20th Century in 100 Maps and the exhibition book Terror and Wonder. The Crime Classics series began in 2012 with the publication of The Notting Hill Mystery, the very first detective novel. But growth really took off in early 2014 when we began to publish work from authors of the 1930s and 40s, the heirs and imitators of Agatha Christie. For years publishers have been concentrating on dark, violent, psychological crime novels, but we spotted a gap in the market for readers seeking escapist detective fiction with superb plots and period atmosphere. We carefully rebranded the series with a uniform cover design. Most of the images are 1930s railway posters from the National Railway Museum collection, which perfectly evoke the charming nostalgic feel of the books themselves.

Finding more titles to emulate the success of Mystery in White is a major part of my role as the series editor. It’s important to be connected to well-read experts in the crime community, and we benefit greatly from the advice and recommendations of bloggers and devoted readers, especially from our series consultant, the crime novelist Martin Edwards. I’m actively seeking submissions from literary agents, as well as reading large numbers of obscure books I’ve come across. Once we’ve identified titles with the key ingredients – strongly evoked settings are important, and a plot involving a train seems to help – we negotiate with literary estates and agents to secure the publication rights. The text of each novel is taken from the first editions – often very rare and highly collectable in their own right – held in the Library’s collection.

People’s existing respect and affection for the British Library is a huge factor in our success: readers take our brand seriously and they trust the books we recommend. Earlier this year the Daily Mail commented that ‘the British Library has more books than any of us could read in a thousand lifetimes. But it is not the first name to spring to mind as a publisher of fiction, least of all crime fiction. Until now.’

This is one indication of how the Crime Classics series is helping to change the public perception of the Library. Broadening access and awareness of the collection is an important part of our remit as publishers for the Library, and the series has certainly helped to do that, not least through strong digital and international sales to new audiences.

But we’re also here to generate revenue that helps support the Library’s services to researchers and public visitors, so it’s important that we focus on profitable publishing with broad appeal. With this in mind, we’ll be continuing to build the Crime Classics for the foreseeable future, as well as adding to our strand of beautiful illustrated non-fiction titles, and experimenting with other fictional genres that have a seriously committed readership: watch this space for more of our Spy Classics, as well as some horror fiction and classic science-fiction.

Robert Davies

British Library Publishing

 

 

Speaking at the British Library yesterday the Chancellor, George Osborne, reflected on the remarkable transformation of the area around our London base at St Pancras: “If you look at all the exciting things that are happening here – of course the British Library, the renovation of Kings Cross – it really is one of the most exciting places in the world. It returns this area to what it was 100 or 150 years ago, which was a centre of modern communication and modern learning.”

Chancellor George Osborne, launching the Knowledge Quarter at the British Library, Thursday 4 December 2014.

He was at the Library to launch the Knowledge Quarter, a new partnership which brings 35 diverse organisations together under one banner to highlight the indispensable role this area plays in the economic and cultural life of London and the UK. Our membership unites institutions old and new, large and small, public and private, all of us united by a passion for advancing knowledge, and a belief in the incredible potential of our neighbourhood.

It may seem counter-intuitive in the digital age, but to develop a truly national knowledge economy we need to invest in the physical spaces and environments that are necessary for innovation to flourish. If we want ‘the knowledge in our heads’ to develop into future economic growth we need radical forms of regeneration, based not just on buildings and infrastructure, but also on innovation, opportunity and access so that people everywhere can benefit from the most valuable commodity of the 21st century – knowledge.

We see this happening in Salford, where Media City is taking root, based around the BBC but encompassing independent broadcasters, higher education, start-ups, technical know-how and talent. It’s a classic example of how a geographical cluster of complementary organisations can spark creativity, collaboration and community.

What Media City is to broadcast culture, the Knowledge Quarter is to knowledge and research. Within a one-mile radius of St Pancras is a remarkable cluster of organisations spanning research, education, science, technology, culture and the arts. Individually, they offer resources for specialists in every field and visitors with every interest. Together, they represent a concentration of knowledge and expertise to rival any in the world. What links them all is a focus on the advancement and dissemination of knowledge for research, inspiration, growth, creativity and enjoyment.

King’s Cross is already one of the most exciting examples of urban regeneration in Europe. More and more organisations and companies are moving in, joining long-established institutions like the British Museum and University College London, and innovative smaller organisations like Impact Hub King’s Cross and the School of Life. The forthcoming move of Google’s UK headquarters to the area demonstrates the virtuous circle that is created when a cluster of world-class organisations attracts world-class neighbours.

Put together, the Knowledge Quarter partners employ over 30,000 people, turn over more than £2 billion, work with 3,500 volunteers, and serve more than 8 million visitors every year. By working together we have the potential to create new jobs and businesses, equip people with new skills, design new products and inventions.

The Knowledge Quarter wants to make the very best of the neighbourhood itself. Our members have a shared interest in creating places that work, where people want to spend time. That means helping to shape local urban design, green spaces and transport routes, as well as supporting local communities by improving local access to our members’ resources and services. The development of any urban area must be for the benefit of all who live, work and spend time there.

Underpinning all of this, and giving KQ its unique character alongside other great clusters in London - from Albertopolis in the West to the future Olympicopolis in the East - is transport connectivity second to none. In the 19th century, the great Victorian railway engineers chose the area to create a revolutionary hub for people and goods. Today it’s a gateway to Europe as well as to the rest of the UK.

This means that innovation in the KQ can have direct significance far beyond its own locality. It was announced yesterday that the new Alan Turing Institute for data science – a national centre for the research and analysis of ‘big data’ – will be based within the British Library and therefore at the very heart of this new knowledge network. As the Chancellor said in making the announcement, “the Institute will bring benefits to the whole country through partnerships with universities and businesses across Britain, including in our great northern cities, to better understand and exploit the amazing opportunities presented by big data.”

We have learnt from similar innovation districts in great cities like Barcelona, Montreal and Cape Town. These districts have a distinct philosophy, focused on driving economic growth while fashioning desirable places and productive social networks. Rather than isolated silos of research, they aim to cultivate living innovation communities, in which people and organisations from all sectors – public, commercial, academic – can come together to share, collaborate and create. That's the vision of the Knowledge Quarter, and we believe that partnerships like this - not just in London but in other great urban centres - are one of the keys to success for the UK in an increasingly competitive and globalised knowledge economy.

Roly Keating

Chief Executive of the British Library and Chair of the Knowledge Quarter

@KQ_London | knowledgequarter.london