Presentation given at the annual RLUK (Research Libraries UK) conference on Thursday 9th March 2017. I discuss the British Library's 'Everything Available' portfolio that aims to transform the Library's research services, in particular around discovery, access and use of content.

1. ‘Everything Available’
– a vision for the development
of the British Library services
for research
Dr Torsten Reimer
Head of Research Services
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8357-9422
RLUK conference, London, 09 March 2017

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Living Knowledge
• Our mission is to make our intellectual
heritage accessible to everyone, for
research, inspiration and enjoyment.
• Living Knowledge articulates the vision
of the British Library in 2023 as the most
open, creative and innovative institution
of its kind in the world.
• Roly Keating: ‘These are times of
historic disruption in the whole global
system of information and publication,
and it seems right that the great
knowledge institutions – with their
historic remit to think and act with a view
far into the future – should play a full
part in shaping the changes that lie
ahead.’

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Disruption 1: new ways of working

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Disruption 2: discovery, access, user
expectations

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Disruption 2: discovery, access, user
expectations
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/reports/researchers-of-tomorrow

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Disruption 2: discovery, access, user
expectations

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Disruption 3: Budgets, subscriptions, VfM

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Disruption 4: open science & scholarly
communication
• Access
• Data
• Source
• Science
• …
Open

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How to respond?
• Add value, be a partner in content creation and research
• Bring content to the user (even if the ‘user’ is a machine)
• Collections in a global world (preserve locally, discover globally)
• Grow capability for discovery and access services
• Focus on user experience, usability and value proposition
• Tailored content provision
• Move to platform / infrastructure provision
• Replace/update all core library systems
• Deliver more in partnership

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The five major change portfolios
Everyone
Engaged
St Pancras
Transformed
Boston Spa
Renewed
Heritage Made
Digital
Everything
Available
BL’s most important
and/or at-risk heritage
collections fully
digitised
All digitised content
on a common
platform
Interoperable with
other great digitised
heritage collections
around the world
At-risk collections
from other countries
digitised with EAP/BL
support
BL’s London campus
completed and
successfully serving
3m+ visitors per year
Improved and
extended facilities for
exhibitions, learning,
research and business
support
Alan Turing Institute
fully established and
integrated on campus
BL understood, valued
and supported by
people right across
the UK
50,000 people paying
membership fees at
different levels
BL at the heart of a
thriving professional
network of major UK
libraries and
knowledge quarters
BSP established as
international centre of
excellence in
collection
management, physical
and digital
Multiple partners from
cultural and research
sectors
New generation digital
skills, diverse
workforce
Attractive, high-quality
campus facilities,
buildings and
landscape design
Comprehensive and
immediate on-site
access to the latest
research content
Sustainable models for
remote access
Common access and
discovery tools for all
content in BL collections
– and beyond
Supporting scholarly
communications
nationally / globally
BL recognised as
offering the best
national research library
service in the world

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Improving discovery
short
• UX study and UI changes
• Trial new approaches
mid
• Review and possibly
replace current discovery
long
• Take a lead in researching
& delivering new solutions

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ATI, AI and data driven library

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Access & use
• From just-in-case to just-in-time provision
• Tailored delivery, feature OA content
• Open up collections:
– BL API platform
– universal viewer
• Supporting research: BL Labs, data analytics,
plans for Digital Research and AV Suite
• Reconsider infrastructure for access and preservation

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Replacing the Digital Library System
• Primary driver: enhance BL capacity
• Opportunity to offer preservation and access services to others
Current system Replacement
Developed in-house ten years ago Dramatic increase in scalability
750 TB, replicated over four sites Multi-tenancy enabled
Preservation-focused system Preservation and access

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Repository services and questions
• EThOS, widely used BL repository service for theses,
to be replatformed (with preservation capability?)
• BL needs own repository function
• Discussion with partners about
a shared repository service
• Open access preservation?

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BL data strategy
‘Our vision for the British Library is that research data are as
integrated into our collections, research and services as text
is today.’
Data Archiving and
Preservation
Data Discovery,
Access and Reuse
Data CreationData Management

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Service layers
Institutions
(Inter)national
infrastructure
On-site & on-line

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(Start of a) roadmap
Short-term
Improve discovery solutions
User registration and
remote access
Tailored delivery and just-in-
time-provision of content
API platform
(starting with EThOS)
Improve user experience
Develop open access
strategy and policy
Lay groundwork to implement
the BL data policy
Scope services for proposed
Digital Reading Room
Medium-term
Improved whole discovery
architecture
Enhanced identifier and digital
preservation services
Shared services model and
national infrastructure
Make Library collections
accessible through external
tools/infrastructures
Appropriate on-site support for
data-driven research and
digital/AV materials
BL as custodian for culturally
relevant business data
Long-term
New approaches to discovery,
including AI-based systems
Exceptional increase in TDM
capacity for heritage content
and BL collections more
Provide support for digital
research lifecycle, working with
partners

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Making everything available means working together
• No single institution can crack this
• Time for more coordination at
national level and beyond
• Collect jointly, preserve nationally,
discover internationally
Two concrete things:
• Skills: work shadowing and
placements
• Repository / preservation
workshop this spring