Keeping print alive… … or ‘What to do when digital becomes default’ Caroline Brazier Associate Director, Operations and Services British Library ‘The Universal Repository Library and guarantees for the sustainability of the digital copy’. Kuopio, Finland 29-30 October 2009

Serving the Google Generation We’re all the Google Generation now. Physical to digital balance is shifting for many library services. What does this mean for our legacy physical collections?

Is print really dying? Increase in all forms of ‘publishing’. Change in demand for traditional library services. Strategies for digital library services must include a vision for physical legacy collections.

Four case studies from the British Library United Kingdom Research Reserve (UKRR) British Library Newspaper strategy Book Digitisation Digital scholarship

Case Study 1: UKRR How to make a few print collections work for the many Coordinated national solution for storage and preservation Developing sustainable business models

Case Study 2: Newspaper strategy 750 million pages State-of-the-art storage facility Digital access in partnership with the newspaper industry and commercial service providers

Case Study 3: Book Digitisation Rising expectations UKRR for research monographs? Exploit multiple channels for access and visibility

Case Study 4: Digital scholarship Unique, rare, precious, iconic Can be more ‘alive’ through digital access services Virtual reunification and interpretation create new knowledge

Key messages We must make physical and digital collections work together We must not base decisions on emotive response to physical objects We must have a new vision We will need large scale and coordinated solutions

Key messages We must move faster to transition from physical to digital We must be smart with business models We’ll need to work in new ways with publishers and rights holders We must keep our solutions under constant review. 5 years is a long time in libraries

Conclusion The best way to keep print ‘alive’ is not only to manage it for preservation in its current form, but to transform it. We must give it a digital future that will excite and inspire future generations of library users.

Thank you for listening For follow up and more information please email: Caroline.brazier@bl.uk