British Library Predicts "switch to digital by 2020"

This press release from the national British Library outlines:

1. The growing shift from print to digital publishing, and
2. The British Library's plans for
   collecting this new digital information.

Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library,
is quoted as saying:


"Most people are aware that a national switch to digital broadcasting
is expected by the end of this decade. Less well known is the fact that a
similar trend is underway in the world of publishing: by the year 2020, 40% of
UK research monographs will be available in electronic format only, while a
further 50% will be produced in both print and digital. A mere 10% of new titles
will be available in print alone by 2020."


The press release goes on to describe the British Library's plans for its growing digital collection:


"The collection will include both items that were 'born digital' and those
items in the British Library collections that have been digitised, such as
Shakespeare’s Quartos and 19th Century newspapers. In 2003 the Library lobbied
Parliament for legal deposit to be extended to electronic materials, including
websites, and the Library now collects e-materials from a variety of sources to
ensure that global research is rapidly available to UK researchers.


"The Library will be using e-journals as a pilot for scoping and testing
processes for their deposit over the forthcoming year. The journals will be
stored within a shared, secure digital infrastructure shared with the other
legal deposit libraries. The British Library will also work with national and
international partners to further its innovative web-archiving strategy.


"The British Library is to link the content of its collections to external
digital resources to support the research process and will work with others who
are developing digital information repositories to ensure that these are robust
and cross-searchable to benefit the researcher. In partnership with JISC (Joint
Information Systems Committee) the Library will create Virtual Research
Environments to provide information services to facilitate the research process
using these new tools."