“The Library is amazing; physically, visually, intellectually. But it doesn’t translate to the website – it’s stuffy and unappealing.” – postgrad researcher, 2011

The disappointment this user felt with an organisation they love is almost tangible. They’re virtually pleading with us to do a better job of showing the world how great we are. But the truth was, four years ago we faced major shortcomings with the British Library’s online customer experience resulting from the fragmentation of our online estate.

The diagnosis was harsh:

• visual and interaction design guidelines that would create a consistent user experience and support a strong brand identity were lacking
• digital content had been developed in silos which limit opportunities for lateral linking and horizontal user journeys
• content creation was often driven by tactical opportunities rather than the Library’s Content Strategy or our audience needs
• the technical infrastructure was dependent on legacy systems that had limited flexibility

Nowhere was all of this truer than Help for Researchers which earned the handle Hindrance for Researchers within the team.

Our researcher audience needed better guidance on how to use our collections most effectively so we set about trying to reduce the complexity and depth of Help for Researchers, trying to make it clear who the section is aimed at and what information can be found there.

The result is our new Subjects pages covering: Americas, Business and patents, Classics, Germanic Studies, Maps, Middle East, Music, National and international government publications, News media, Science, Slavonic studies, Sound, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Visual arts with a further 16 to come in the next few months. They are housed together at this hub page.

These pages were designed to be aggregation points for collections, catalogues, projects, events, staff profiles and blogs. Another aim is to make navigation of British Library content and services more intuitive.

But what they are also helping to do is cement the Library’s role in the global knowledge network by adding our unique assets – our authority, our primary sources, and our expert curation – to the cause of making our intellectual heritage accessible to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment.

And there’s no better place to get a feeling for our primary sources than www.bl.uk/collection-guides.

This is fast becoming my favourite page on the British Library website - surely one of the few places on the web where you’ll find The British Newspaper Archive sitting happily alongside Classical Latin manuscripts, Ordnance survey mapping, Pop music recordings, Russian and Soviet posters and postcards, UK electoral registers, Europe PubMed Central. Nowhere else can you start to appreciate the dazzling diversity of the Library’s collections and it has only been possible with some outstanding collaboration between our curatorial, web and content teams.

And it’s growing. From just five collection guides a few months ago to 106 today, as our experts seize the opportunity provided by a standard, flexible toolkit to engage our users online with minimum marketing or IT intervention.

I’d like to go back to that postgrad researcher from 2011 and ask if we’ve managed to meet their expectations. I hope the answer would be: “yes” and “no” because as far as we’ve come, we can’t stop here.

Graham MacFadyen

Head of Digital and Marketing Operations