British Library throws out
                    thousands of books and historic
                    newspapers

                    By Chris Marsden
                    14 August 2000

                    Use this version to print

                    The British Library has junked
approximately 80,000 books
                    and 60,000 historic newspapers
over the last two years. This
                    ends its 328-year policy of
collecting every volume
                    published in Britain. The library
has collected every book
                    published in Britain since 1662,
making the British Library
                    a nearly complete historical
collection. It receives a copy of
                    every new book published in
Britain under copyright laws.

                    The implementation of such a
policy change is an act of
                    cultural and historical vandalism.
Based purely on
                    considerations of financial
expediency, it is a telling
                    example of the philistinism that
now dominates within
                    ruling circles. The library board
left the selection of
                    material to be junked to junior
staff. The decision was never
                    made public. The change in policy
only came to light after a
                    senior staff member acknowledged
its existence in a letter to
                    a scholar, Keith Armstrong. The
discarding of books is to
                    continue, according to a British
Library spokesman.

                    Armstrong discovered that five
books he needed for his
                    research were marked “discarded”
in the British Library
                    catalogue. By chance he had found
a copy of an important
                    work by the psychologist Deborah
Marks in a London
                    second-hand book shop, marked
“British
                    Library—withdrawn”. Marks's book
was only published last
                    year.

                    Richard Cheffins, head of the
British Library's social policy
                    information service, said the
library had abandoned its
                    previous policy due to the expense
this entailed. He
                    admitted that “low use” was a
criterion in selecting which
                    books to be discarded in favour of
“new stock”.

                    The 60,000 historic newspapers
discarded by the library
                    represent nearly a tenth of its
collection. The newspapers,
                    many irreplaceable, come from most
countries in Europe,
                    the United States and Latin
America and were collected
                    over a 130-year period. The
discarded papers were either
                    given away free to museums
overseas or offered at an
                    unpublicised auction.

                    They include Russian newspapers
from before the October
                    1917 Revolution and German
publications covering the
                    years in which Hitler came to
power. The Prussian State
                    Library in Berlin took some, while
Baylor University in
                    Texas was given the nineteenth
century Italian papers La
                    Nazione and Giornale di Roma.
Other collections were
                    broken up and sold to dealers, or
simply pulped—including
                    37 runs of papers from France.

                    Offers made by the British Library
to hand over the
                    tsarist-period newspapers to
Russia's leading libraries,
                    including in St. Petersburg, went
unheeded according to the
                    ITAR-TASS news agency, which
called them “the richest
                    collection of pre-revolutionary
Russian newspapers”. But
                    this was denied by Ed King, who
heads the British Library's
                    Newspaper Library, who said that
the titles being
                    considered for disposal included
only five Russian Imperial
                    newspaper titles, and were mostly
incomplete runs.

                    Among the American papers removed
were the New York
                    Herald Tribune, the New York
World, the Chicago Tribune
                    and the San Francisco Chronicle,
from the period
                    1880-1950. No American library has
comparable runs.

                    The newspaper disposals were first
revealed by the
                    American novelist Nicholson Baker,
who heads a non-profit
                    organisation dedicated to saving
old newspaper runs, which
                    spent nearly £20,000 at a British
Library auction last year.
                    Baker commented, “The foreign
newspaper collection was
                    one of the finest in the world, a
national treasure. Its
                    dispersal ought to have been
publicly discussed and
                    governed by laws designed to
protect holdings of such
                    extraordinary historical and
monetary value.”

                    The discarded volumes were
recorded on Microfilm, but
                    David McKitterick, the librarian
of Trinity College,
                    Cambridge, told the London Times,
“They are getting rid of
                    the record of the whole
development of the popular press
                    across the world since the
nineteenth century”.


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