BBC and British Library to broaden access to archives

 

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Posted on 11 Dec 2009 at 15:19

The BBC and British Library today signed off on a joint project to give public digital access to their huge combined archives. The Library contains more than 150m items, plus 1m hours of BBC TV and radio footage dating back as far as 1922.

Public access to all this material would be a huge boon to both professional and amateur historians. It represents a massive quantity of materials, which could then be accessed without physically journeying to the library. There are hurdles to overcome of course, with the key issues being copyright and distribution.

The British Library, as one if the UK's libraries of legal deposit, contains copies of every book published and distributed in the UK. It contains books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints and drawings. The vast majority of this material has its own copyright holders, though, who would have to be honoured in the event of digital access.

Another issue would be providing bandwidth for public access, as we reckon an open archive would require some hefty public financial support to run. The library already offers a commercial service with digital access on request to around 100m items, this is open worldwide and helps support the day-to-day operations of the library. With the new service we hope to see direct online access to many of these documents without using such a request service.

A joint committee is to be set up to work through the details. Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC said: "The BBC and the British Library share many of the same purposes - to guarantee public access to content in an open realm, creating a space where people can debate and exchange ideas and experiences. Unlocking the wealth of content in the British Library and BBC archives is a great opportunity as well as an immense challenge. It is vital we partner, harnessing the power of digital technology to give the public the access they deserve."

Author: Seth Barton