Not only books have been digitalized, but libraries have changed too. One of the most important digital libraries is the British Library which is situated in London and it holds over 150 million items in all known languages and formats. It includes around 25 million books, some of them been substancial additional collection of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.
The British Library not only receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom, it also receives books from Ireland. It was created in 1973 by the Brisith Library Act 1972. In 1982, it absorbed the National Sound Archive. The core of the Library´s historical collection are some donations and acquisitions of the eighteen century and they are known as the “foundation collection”.
The new library was designed specially for the purpose by the architect Colin St. John Wilson. Facing Euston Road is a large piazza that includes pieces of public art, such as large sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi (a bronze statue based on William Blake‘s study of Isaac Newton) and Antony Gormley. It is the largest public building constructed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century. In the middle of the building is a four-storey glass tower containing the King’s Library, with 65,000 printed volumes along with other pamphlets, manuscripts and maps collected by King George III between 1763 and 1820.
In 1911 the Parliamnt established the principle of the legal deposit, which says that each of the six libraries have to receive a free copy of every item published in Ireland and UK, the other libraries were: the Bodleian Library at Oxford; the University Library at Cambridge; the Trinity College Library at Dublin; and the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales. But the British Library is the only one ehich receives the items automatically.
If we talk about the material available online, The British Library makes almost none of its collections available online and free to the public. Its Online Gallery gives access to 30,000 images from various medieval books, together with a handful of exhibition-style items in a proprietary format, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels. This includes the facility to “turn the virtual pages” of a few documents, such as Leonardo da Vinci´s notebooks.
When Google Books started, the British Library signed an agreement with Microsoft to digitise a number of books from the British Library for its Live Search Books project. This material was only available to readers in the USA, and closed in May 2008. People have acces to some books in the Sir John Ritbal Gallery, and the books are well-known: Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Le Morte Dartour…It also has a newspaper section situated in Colindale (North London).
References:
* The British Library. Retrieved 19:05, October 7, 2009, from: http://www.bl.uk/
* British Library, In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:27, October 7, 2009, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library
* British Library´s Manuscripts Catalogues. Retrieved 19:00, October 7, 2009, from: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts/INDEX.asp
* The British Library London, Colin St John Wilson and Partners (1997). Retrieved 19:02, October 7, 2009, from: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/British%20library/index.htm
