British Library indicates shift to digital

In its 2020 Vision document, published on 17 September 2010, the British Library says that it will significantly increase its digitisation activities and its visibility on the web. This will be achieved through a range of partnerships with private and public providers. The paper outlines the likely key trends and opportunities over the next 10 years. They include: - the development of technology will be in a constant 'beta' state, changing rapidly and, by 2020, creating a very different environment from today; - the new generation of 'digital natives' will enjoy wider access than ever to a huge range of online content in all formats; - they will assume that everything will be available on the web, but this will be incorrect as even by 2020 a huge amount of legacy content will remain undigitised; - the online landscape will increasingly resemble the semantic web, in which computers become capable of extracting, classifying and analysing data to create context from content; - the business models underpinning scholarly publishing will change dramatically – more teaching, learning and research will take place virtually and multi- and inter-disciplinary research will continue to grow in importance; - knowledge institutions will need to reposition themselves, demonstrating the distinct value they add to the knowledge economy. The report says the British Library plans to digitise a significant proportion of its content that is out of copyright, and make it widely accessible independent of location, and in ways and on devices that users choose. The library's rare and unique collections will be digitised and made more widely available on digital platforms. In addition, it will set up partnership models for licensing digital content outside its reading rooms with multimedia access for users. Dame Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, said: "By the year 2020 we estimate that only 25% of all titles worldwide will be published in print form alone. 75% will only be published digitally, or in both digital and print form. Our research suggests that as use of mobile devices become ubiquitous, users will expect seamless access to information and services, and will assume that everything is available on the web. "If we in the UK are going to safeguard our intellectual heritage and ensure it can be used by future generations of researchers, it is essential that we make a step change in the amount of digital content that we collect, store and make accessible for the long term."