Dear colleagues
You may have seen recent correspondence in the Guardian and elsewhere
suggesting that the British Library has been discarding unique material
received under Legal Deposit. The following message is to reassure the
library community that nothing of the kind has been taking place.
Tom French
Head of Modern British Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
England
Tel: 020 7412 7623
Fax: 020 7412 7557
Email: [log in to unmask]
================================================================
The British Library and Legal Deposit
Recent press articles have given the impression that the British
Library has implemented a major change in policy and is no longer
collecting and retaining all British material that is received by
legal deposit.
This is not true. There has been no change of policy. The Library
has never discarded publications received by legal deposit and will not
do so.
The position was explained in a letter from David Bradbury, Director
General, Collections and Services, in a letter in the Guardian, 14
August:
May I reassure your readers and British publishers that the British
Library has not junked any rare books; that there has been no change
of policy; that we have never discarded publications received under
legal deposit; and that we have no intention of doing so.
The correspondence between the British Library and one of our readers
which led to your reports and letters related to our disposal some 10
years ago of large quantities of US Government publications which the
Library had acquired in the 40s and 50s. These publications are all
archived in the US.
For the last 20 years we have been more selective about the
acquisition of publications of foreign governments, because they are
very expensive to store, process and preserve and because we would
rather use our acquisition funds for material which we believe to be
of far greater value to researchers.
David Bradbury
Director-General, Collections and Services
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|