Ruth Jones has been appointed head of development at the British Library (BL), a new role that will involve redefining the role of the BL as a National Digital Library. Jones was the founding general manager of Extenza e-Publishing, seeing the company through start-up to sell-off, and will use this business experience in her new role. “I think it’s interesting that they brought someone in with a commercial background. I think they wanted someone with a strong empathy with the information industry,” she said. Jones is the latest in a long line of BL recruits from the private sector. The BL strategy for 2005 to 2008 makes the digital library a priority. “Our challenge is to redefine the role and purpose of the British Library in the information revolution of the 21st century,” it said. Jones told IWR that BL’s centrality to the UK information industry made its digital ambitions pivotal. “All routes lead there,” she said. The National Digital Library is already in a pilot stage with 23 journal publishers contributing electronic content to the archive. Jones said the difference between the National Digital Library and the growing number of archives being launched by commercial publishers is the BL’s remit to preserve content in perpetuity. [PS: What about open access?] A team of six licensing experts and five product development experts have been pulled together to direct development, liaise with publishers and work with all areas of the BL in development. Jones said BL Direct, its web-based document delivery service, is the platform from which she will launch the digital library. The trial is currently taking in PDF content, but is looking at a long-term technology that will provide access to future generations. Full-text XML is the preferred technology, but Jones said there needs to be a move towards international standards on archiving digital content.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/15/2005 10:41:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
