Playing an ACE: Access, Collaboration and Engagement in the British Library

The British Library was founded in 1972 by an Act of Parliament which brought together eight institutions, including the British Museum Library (with a history of collecting stretching back 250 years) and the National Lending Library for Science and Technology (a more recent creation). Inevitably, these institutions had very different philosophies and practices of access to resources, evidence of which can still be seen today. Against this background, the Library's avowed aim is to provide services for everyone who wants to do research - a policy which has caused some controversy since its implementation. At the same time, the digital era is having an increasingly profound impact on collecting and access, which cannot be ignored by anyone - whether Greek scholar, macro-economist, sociologist, ethnographer, archivist, curator or librarian. Even so, expectations of the role of the Library differ widely by discipline. In 2005, a decision was made to invest in the development of our services for social scientists; a new department was established in 2006, with the key task of promoting the Library to this group of researchers. Collaboration with the wider social science research community is a key priority; engaging with the public is a longer term goal, with the intention of highlighting the role and value of research. This paper - Playing the ACE - discusses the processes involved, lessons learned, and provides some practical illustrations.