Defining a National Library in a Digital World: Dame Lynne Brindley at the British Library

Abstract

The period of Dame Lynne Brindley's tenure as Chief Executive of the British Library was an era when national libraries had first seriously to address the question of how to define a national library in the digital world. The article describes the two fundamental efforts that emerged under her leadership of the BL: strategies to digitize and open up existing collections, including but not limited to special collections; and to extend the collection building, management and preservation strategies to include the continually-emerging segments of the digital cultural record. The article concludes by identifying three individual initiatives – the Codex Sinaiticus project, the Endangered Archives Programme, and the Digital Lives project – that were put in place under Dame Lynne's leadership, to the great and lasting benefit not just of the British Library but of research libraries and scholars worldwide.