Abstract
In 1999 the British Library (BL) set up a Co-operation and Partnership Programme, with the remit to align the library's approach more closely with the strategies being developed by related organizations, both nationally and internationally. Early on, after examining and analysing examples of cooperative activities in the field of libraries and information services it was concluded that the importance of interlending as the main driving force of cooperation was declining with the growth of national systems and networking, while interoperability between different automated systems, to maximize the range of cooperative services, emerged as the next logical step for libraries in all sectors. One of the first objectives of the programme was to set up a website, named Concord, designed to help libraries, museums and archives to develop new cooperative projects. Later in 1999 a Call for Proposals was issued for projects seeking financial support from the newly created Co-operation and Partnership Fund, for which a sum of £500,000 had been earmarked. Within the UK, many cooperative initiatives involve the BL, along with the other legal deposit libraries, in the academic and public library sectors, and internationally within and between other national libraries, notably on digitization projects. There are now several bodies that bring together national libraries in different regions of the world, and indeed worldwide.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.