Let the good times roll

I was at the British Library (BL) last night for their summer drinks bash (the quickest way to a journalist's heart is through the liver) but also to celebrate the St Pancras building's tenth anniversary. The other point of the evening was to highlight the release of the institution's annual report which this year has been complemented with an online version of library users waxing lyrical about the service and what they get out of it. Its quite fun way of presenting it actually...
Statistics that the assembled team of BL staff were keen to point out show that the 2007/08 year has been a winning one for the library. It has on the whole, successfully played the role of 'honest broker' in the ongoing IP debate and got most of what it wanted from the Gower's review. The last 12 months have also been fruitful for a number of other reasons too, for example Reading Room satisfaction rates come in at around 93%. The religiously themed Sacred: Discover what we share exhibition drew in nearly 200,000 visitors which the library say is its most successful event yet. Complementing that, its online presence has attracted six million unique visitors to its website. With the Government agreeing not to make any cuts to the BL's annual budget and with a saving of £18 million made in an efficiency drive, it is perhaps unsurprising that Chief Exec Dame Lynne Brindley appeared in the 2008 honours list.
(You can find out more about Lynne in our special summer issue IWR Horizons next month)
Meanwhile tomorrow will see the launch of a new website that will bring different sections of the world's oldest bible (The Codex Sinaiticus) together. The Codex Sinaiticus website will unite the four parts of the bible held at institutions in Germany, Egypt, and Russia and of course the UK's British Library. Using the web to reunite the ancient document in its entirety is significant because parts of it have rarely been viewed than by clerics of the highest level.
All in all I'd say that was a pretty good year for the library.