Newspaper digitisation: 
The British Library business 
model 
Patrick Fleming 
Head of Business Change, St Pancras Campus
The British Library Newspaper Programme: Long term 
storage, preservation and access 
750 million newspaper pages in the 
collection 
600,000 bound volumes, wrapped 
parcels and boxes of Newspapers, 
150,000 periodicals 
Surrogates: Approx 35% microfilm 
Less than 1% digital 
50 km of shelf space at Colindale 
Physical collections growing at up to 
450m p.a. through Legal Deposit 
www.bl.uk 2
Reasons for the Newspaper Programme 
Preserve fragile newspapers 
 Create a preservation storage environment 
(the Newspaper Storage Building) at Boston 
Spa in Yorkshire and move the Newspapers to 
it 
Improve user experience and access 
 Integrate service provision with St Pancras 
Reading Rooms 
 Create new search and ordering interface and 
comprehensive online catalogue data 
 Provide a compelling digital content offering 
Create growth space for print newspapers 
 Allow growth space for hard copy Newspapers 
(growing at up to 450m p.a.) 
www.bl.uk 3
The drive to digital: 
• Driven by need to transform approach to existing physical and 
microfilm access 
• Need to stop microfilming 
• Digital desire: Core problem: No funding 
• 2007 to 2009: £3m from JISC to digitise three million pages 
• Core principle: Free at the British Library accessible via 
Cengage institutional platform: effectively a solution for higher 
education and international libraries 
• Library needed an accelerator 
www.bl.uk 4
The British Newspaper Archive 
• Competitive Dialogue procurement to find a partner to digitise from the 
archive at no cost to the Library 
• May 2010 launched the British Newspaper Archive with brightsolid (now DC 
Thomson Family History) with commitment to digitise up to 40 million pages 
over next decade 
• brightsolid created scanning facility at Colindale now Boston Spa 
• Business model: brightsolid scan out of copyright content (pre 1900) from 
Library hard copy and microfilm collection and provide free access on Library 
premises and sell through B2C micropayment site 
• brightsolid able to work with publishers to ‘acquire’ content especially 1900 to 
1950 
• brightsolid return all content with OCR and metadata to the Library 
www.bl.uk 5
British Newspaper Archive 
www.bl.uk 6
Outcomes 
• JISC content embedded in the BNA 
• DC Thomson create partnership with Cengage Learning to reach 
institutional and B2B market 
• DC Thomson create partnership with Newsplan to digitise from their 
archive 
• DC Thomson embed content in their genealogy brand Find My Past 
taking Library content into new markets 
• DC Thomson create successful new business 
• British Library gets revenue share, wider access to content and ability 
to introduce surrogate first strategy for future collection access 
• Newspaper publishers get newspaper content digitised 
www.bl.uk 7
From Newspapers to Newsroom 
 Newspapers 
 Print and microfilm newspapers – 
60M issues, one third accessible in 
surrogate form 
 Digitised newspapers – British 
Newspaper Archive – 8.7M digitised 
pages 
 Electronic newspaper resources – 
national and international sources 
 Television & radio 
 Broadcast News – 22 channels, 60 
hours per day, 40,000 programmes 
since May 2010 
 BBC catalogue – 2M catalogue 
records plus BBC TV and radio since 
2007 
 Web 
 Legal deposit – annual crawl 
 Legal deposit – 500+ news sites 
archived on daily/weekly basis 
 UK Web Archive 
www.bl.uk 8
Newsroom 
www.bl.uk 9
Newsroom networking 
www.bl.uk 10
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25041871 
www.bl.uk 11

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EurnewsLDN_Patrick_Fleming

  • 1. Newspaper digitisation: The British Library business model Patrick Fleming Head of Business Change, St Pancras Campus
  • 2. The British Library Newspaper Programme: Long term storage, preservation and access 750 million newspaper pages in the collection 600,000 bound volumes, wrapped parcels and boxes of Newspapers, 150,000 periodicals Surrogates: Approx 35% microfilm Less than 1% digital 50 km of shelf space at Colindale Physical collections growing at up to 450m p.a. through Legal Deposit www.bl.uk 2
  • 3. Reasons for the Newspaper Programme Preserve fragile newspapers  Create a preservation storage environment (the Newspaper Storage Building) at Boston Spa in Yorkshire and move the Newspapers to it Improve user experience and access  Integrate service provision with St Pancras Reading Rooms  Create new search and ordering interface and comprehensive online catalogue data  Provide a compelling digital content offering Create growth space for print newspapers  Allow growth space for hard copy Newspapers (growing at up to 450m p.a.) www.bl.uk 3
  • 4. The drive to digital: • Driven by need to transform approach to existing physical and microfilm access • Need to stop microfilming • Digital desire: Core problem: No funding • 2007 to 2009: £3m from JISC to digitise three million pages • Core principle: Free at the British Library accessible via Cengage institutional platform: effectively a solution for higher education and international libraries • Library needed an accelerator www.bl.uk 4
  • 5. The British Newspaper Archive • Competitive Dialogue procurement to find a partner to digitise from the archive at no cost to the Library • May 2010 launched the British Newspaper Archive with brightsolid (now DC Thomson Family History) with commitment to digitise up to 40 million pages over next decade • brightsolid created scanning facility at Colindale now Boston Spa • Business model: brightsolid scan out of copyright content (pre 1900) from Library hard copy and microfilm collection and provide free access on Library premises and sell through B2C micropayment site • brightsolid able to work with publishers to ‘acquire’ content especially 1900 to 1950 • brightsolid return all content with OCR and metadata to the Library www.bl.uk 5
  • 7. Outcomes • JISC content embedded in the BNA • DC Thomson create partnership with Cengage Learning to reach institutional and B2B market • DC Thomson create partnership with Newsplan to digitise from their archive • DC Thomson embed content in their genealogy brand Find My Past taking Library content into new markets • DC Thomson create successful new business • British Library gets revenue share, wider access to content and ability to introduce surrogate first strategy for future collection access • Newspaper publishers get newspaper content digitised www.bl.uk 7
  • 8. From Newspapers to Newsroom  Newspapers  Print and microfilm newspapers – 60M issues, one third accessible in surrogate form  Digitised newspapers – British Newspaper Archive – 8.7M digitised pages  Electronic newspaper resources – national and international sources  Television & radio  Broadcast News – 22 channels, 60 hours per day, 40,000 programmes since May 2010  BBC catalogue – 2M catalogue records plus BBC TV and radio since 2007  Web  Legal deposit – annual crawl  Legal deposit – 500+ news sites archived on daily/weekly basis  UK Web Archive www.bl.uk 8