**Apologies for cross-posting**
     
     The British Library Research and Innovation Centre has recently
     awarded four new grants for research. Full details are available from
     the Centre's WWW pages at: http://www.bl.uk/services/ric/
     
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     Managing digitisation in visual resource collections
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     This project aims to map progress from analogue to digital images in
     visual resource collections and to explore similarities and
     differences in commercial and non-commercial undertakings. It will
     begin by taking as its starting point the findings of the National
     Survey of Slide Collections (British Library Research Paper 67) and
     investigate changes in the collections covered. Comparable
     developments in commercial collections will then be explored.
     Collection profiles for identified types will be developed together
     with a draft model for change management. The final report will
     present an overview of digital methods in collections and include
     sections on the current administrative state of collections, skills
     issues and a snapshot report of the level of technology currently
     available in collections.
     
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     A mass observation of the contemporary public library
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     This project will generate a significant and extensive 'open access'
     public commentary on public library activity and status, the purpose
     of which is to show where the institution stands in the public eye.
     Evidence collected will point to why public libraries are used, what
     they do well, what they do badly and, above all, what they mean to
     users and non-users alike. The data-gathering stage of the research
     will be conducted by the Mass Observation Archive, University of
     Sussex, an organisation with a long tradition in, and a strong
     reputation for, conducting sophisticated unobtrusive research into
     everyday social practices and attitudes. Written observations will be
     obtained from approximately 500 covert volunteers. In respect of
     objectivity, evidence collected will be more valuable than that
     obtained from most other user studies of either the interview/survey
     or observation type, where researcher influence tends to sully data
     and limit its validity. Evidence will be largely unprompted, arising
     from a large number of unprioritised issues and topics presented
     objectively to volunteers to stimulate commentary. The archive
     assembled will be made available at the Mass Observation archive, free
     of charge, to researchers other than the project's proposers. It is
     anticipated that results of analysis, including those produced by the
     project team, will benefit public library policy-makers and
     strategists looking to deepen their understanding of the social
     context in which public libraries operate. As a by-product, the
     archive will be useful to future researchers: in the long term to
     historians of the public library movement; in the short term to
     analysts of the institution seeking to contextualise their work with
     reference to a temporal benchmark of public attitude and use.
     
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     The legal deposit of local publications: a case-study of
     Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland
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     This project will provide the British Library with valuable
     information from which it can develop policies and strategies to
     improve its coverage of local publications in the distributed National
     Published Archive and the British National Bibliography. The research
     will also be of considerable benefit to libraries, archives and other
     information providers throughout the UK, by providing them with models
     for assessing and improving the legal deposit of local publications,
     giving them an understanding of likely resource implications and by
     raising awareness of legal deposit issues among local publishers (who
     in turn will benefit from wider coverage of their publications). The
     success of any distributed National Published Archive will depend in a
     co-operative approach, between information providers at sub-regional
     and regional levels, and between these providers and the British
     Library and other legal deposit libraries. The proposed research will
     therefore provide guidelines which will address this need, and
     facilitate the development of sub-regional, regional and national
     co-operatives policies and strategies to improve short term,
     -medium-and long - term access to locally-published information for
     users of information and library services. By meeting objectives such
     as these, the research, will help library authorities throughout the
     UK to respond positively to Audit Commission and DCMS concerns that
     they should develop their planning processes, particularly with regard
     to resource allocation, collection management and access policies.
     
     The research will be based on a case study of the legal deposit of
     local publications in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, an area
     particularly suitable for the research. As a result of the Local
     Government Review (LGR) process the former Shire county of
     Leicestershire became two unitary authorities (the City of Leicester
     and Rutland District), and a "continuing" county with second tier
     districts. There exists an active and successful LIP, an area-wide
     Health Information Strategy, a Telematics Strategy in an advanced
     stage of development, a high level of local Teletext services
     provision and an active voluntary section. The results of the
     research will thus be widely-applicable, providing a
     demonstrator-model for local information providers and policy-makers
     seeking to improve access to local publications in the UK.
     
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     Friends of Libraries
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     This short study will pull together recent work at a time when the
     Government's proposals for modernising local government, including the
     introduction of the 'Best value' regime and the changes in the
     relationship between libraries and the communities they serve, are
     creating renewed interest in Friends of Libraries. It will take into
     account issues raised at the CPI seminar on Friends in June 1998 and
     the work done by Sheffield Libraries and Information Services and
     Worcestershire County Council
     
     The objectives are:
     * to establish a listing of present Groups in the UK
     * to review their constitutions, programmes, finance and membership
     and their contribution to libraries in terms of advocacy, activities
     and financial support
     * to review the experience and potential of Friends in raising funds
     for the libraries and their services and look at it in comparison with
     Friends groups in other cultural services
     * to compare fund raising
     * to develop guidelines based on best practice
     * to investigate the potential benefits of a national organisation of
     Friends


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