This month marks the first anniversary of a criminal attack on the Library which, as we detailed in a report earlier this year, has affected almost every aspect of our public service. As our users and regular readers of this blog know only too well, the journey to recover full access to our collection and services has been challenging and sometimes frustrating.

It’s reassuring, therefore, to be able to report that as of this week, with the re-opening of the National Newspaper Building in Boston Spa – containing some 750 million pages of newspapers and periodicals dating back to the 18th century – we have now restored access to 100% of the Library’s printed collections that were available prior to the cyber-attack.

It marks the culmination of a busy month which has seen a rapid sequence of service restorations of different kinds. All of these are workarounds and remain somewhat different to our pre-attack offering, but together they represent a significant step forward after a very disrupted year, and I’d like once again to thank our users for your patience and understanding as we’ve addressed this major work of rebuilding and restoration.

• Remote ordering now available
• Access restored to the rest of our physical collection
• Online learning resources
• Digitised manuscripts
• Electronic Legal Deposit
• Looking further ahead

Remote ordering now available

Key among these services is the facility to request collection items online, rather than having to do so by filling in a paper form onsite, which had been the interim process since January.

Registered Readers can now order items up to 28 days in advance from wherever they are by visiting our updated web pages and following the online instructions. Your items will be waiting for you in our Reading Rooms in London or Yorkshire. As mentioned in my last blog, if your Reader Pass dates from before 21 March 2024 you will need to register for a new pass in order to use the restored service.

More than 400 orders were placed on the morning the service went live, and our staff will be able to offer any support that you may need in using the new process. I am extremely grateful for the patience Readers have shown in adapting to this new system, and hope that it goes at least some way to addressing what has been one of the key frustrations users have faced since the attack.

Access restored to the rest of our physical collection

Last month we restored access to more than 262 linear kilometres of collection items held in our automated Additional Storage Building in Boston Spa – and you can now request them to consult at Boston Spa or St Pancras using the remote ordering service.

Earlier this week, we restored access to the huge archive of newspapers and periodicals stored in the National Newspaper Building, also located at Boston Spa. This means that the entirety of our printed collections as they were prior to the cyber-attack are once again available to consult in our Reading Rooms.

Online learning resources

In September, at the start of the school year, we also brought back the 100 most-used articles from our Discovering Literature web resource for teachers and young learners. In the coming months we aim to add more of this sorely-missed content to our interim website.

Digitised manuscripts

Last week we restored access to 1,000 of our digitised manuscripts, with treasures such as the Sherborne Missal and the Eadui Psalter once again available to explore in full. It’s been great to make a first tranche of these unique treasures accessible to users around the world once again. More digitised manuscripts will be added to the site as we proceed with the careful work of data recovery.

Electronic Legal Deposit

The task of checking the vast core dataset of Electronic Legal Deposit content (also known as Non-Print Legal Deposit) is now complete, but for all of the partners in the Legal Deposit Library network (the British Library, the National Library of Wales, the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library and the Library of Trinity College Dublin) there is now a further stage of work to test and set up access to the new local systems needed to make it available in a way that is both secure and compliant with the very specific access restrictions required by statute. Timings for this may vary somewhat for each institution, and each of us will be communicating about this directly with our own user communities: please bear with us as we navigate through this final hurdle.

As mentioned in my previous blog, this tranche of content will consist of e-journals and e-publications deposited prior to October 2023, and won’t for the time being include the UK Web Archive, for which a different solution is required.

Looking further ahead

Alongside all of this, we are also deep into planning the next phase of our recovery programme, which will take us into the new year. Areas of particular focus include our sound archive and our popular and much-missed Ethos resource of 600,000 digitised theses. There’ll be updates on these and more in subsequent blogs here.

In the longer term, as I’ve mentioned previously, work continues to implement a new end-to-end platform for all our library services – a vital project which was already in planning before the attack, and which will ultimately provide not just relief from the challenges of the past year, but a better and more integrated service than we were ever able to offer before.

In the meantime I would like to thank our users, partners and supporters for all of your understanding and support as we continue to restore our services to researchers and the public, across the UK and around the globe.

Sir Roly Keating
Chief Executive

Today marks the formal launch of our new Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. You can read the summary (PDF 5mb), or for all the details view our full strategy (PDF, 4mb).

We hear from our Sustainability Manager, Catherine Ross, about the Library's journey to this point.

Why is sustainability important to the Library?

Climate change is real, urgent and serious. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. It’s easy to think it’s still a problem of the future, but we know from our international partners that they already experiencing the impacts of climate change. We’ve seen 40°C days in London. We know the Library needs to build our own resilience, and that we have a role to support society’s efforts to adapt to and address this crisis.

At the start of the new strategy, our Chief Executive, Sir Roly Keating, puts it very powerfully,

At the British Library, we are charged with safeguarding the national collection for generations to come. This naturally leads to long-term thinking about climate change. It is widely recognised that the scale of change ahead amounts to a planet-wide emergency, with devastating impacts. Our strategy reflects a sense of determination about our role; these are global challenges and, as one of the world’s great libraries, and proud signatories to the Green Libraries Manifesto, we are determined to play our part.

Is the Library starting from scratch?

Far from it. Here are just a few examples of things we have already done:

• Using heat pumps to get heat from the ground and air, reducing our use of gas
• Using sunshine to warm the water you wash your hands with in St Pancras
• Using less new materials to build our exhibitions
• Boosting re-use and recycling, sending nothing to landfill
• Working with suppliers to become more sustainable
• Offering greener choices in our cafés and shops
• Supporting new sustainable businesses
• Telling climate stories through our exhibitions, events, learning programmes and collections.

What is the sustainability strategy for?

This is our first sustainability strategy, and it is all about coordinating our efforts and aiming even higher. We were already doing a lot, but the new strategy pulls it together in one place.

When you read it, you’ll see the practical things we can do as the national library. It covers how we will get our own house in order, by reducing the environmental impact of our buildings and operations, while also showing how we will inform and inspire others, through our wider purposes.

What aims has the Library set?

In the strategy there are detailed aims under four broad headings:

Sustainable places

We aim to continue decarbonising our buildings and embedding best practice in environmental performance in our new spaces

Sustainable purposes

We aim to collaborate with people to open up the collection in new and interesting ways, to support work on solutions to the environmental challenges we face – from climate research and enabling sustainable business and enterprise, to engaging people through events, exhibitions and learning, and increasing climate literacy and visibility of climate science

Sustainable partnerships

We aim to embed partnerships across the sectors we work in to support wider change, share and encourage climate action, best practice and learning

Embedding sustainability

We aim to embed sustainability in how we work; our culture, policy, processes, governance, planning, collections and communications, ensuring it is seen not as an add-on, but as how we do everything we already do. This includes incorporating climate-related risks into our risk management, governance and conservation policies.

Who wrote it?

The strategy has been written by staff from across the Library. It’s been a real team effort, over the course of nearly a year.

We formed two working groups; one on our places and one on our purposes. There were members from Estates, our People team, Public Engagement, Collections Management, Supply Chain Management, Finance, Communications and Marketing, Technology and more. It was my role to coordinate this process. Both working groups reported in to the Sustainability and Climate Change Steering Group, chaired by our Chief Librarian.

How will the Library make sure it is actually implemented?

We are determined this new strategy leads to action, not just words. We have also created an action plan which will be monitored by the steering group twice a year, with annual reports to Direction Group and Board.

We’re gearing up for Green Libraries Week (7–13 October), which celebrates the work going on in libraries across the UK focused on sustainability and climate change.

Here at the British Library, we recognise the urgency of the climate crisis and the impact it will have on our operations and collection. For well over a decade we’ve been taking action to reduce our environmental impact and want to support the library sector to lead the way on sustainability. 

We’ve got a green-packed week in store, with the launch of our first sustainability strategy, as well as a series of related events – including some taster sessions that will get your taste buds tingling.

Sustainability uncovered
Over the past 12 months, we’ve been working on our first Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, which we will formally launch on 8 October (look out for our upcoming blog that day). This strategy sets out our aims for the next six years across four broad areas: our places, our purposes, our partnerships, and embedding sustainability in how we work.

Our Chief Executive Sir Roly Keating said: ‘Our strategy reflects a sense of determination about our role; these are global challenges and, as one of the world’s great libraries, and proud signatories to the Green Libraries Manifesto, we are determined to play our part.’  

Sustainably Sourced Coffee Tasting Experience
Wednesday 9 October 
14.00 – 15.30
Foyle Suite, British Library, 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB
£10 (15 spots available)

One of our coffee providers, Origin Coffee, take you on a sensory journey exploring the environmental impact of coffee production. Discover why specialty coffee is a more sustainable choice for both the environment and coffee producers.

You’ll also learn about the differences in production methods and be invited to taste our coffees, while learning the stories behind each producer and their relationship with Origin.

Book now

Webinar: Libraries and positive climate action: fiction, imagination and hope
Thursday 10 Oct 2024
16:00 – 17:30
Online
Free but booking required

Many libraries have discovered that working with writers and other artists is a powerful way to convey issues related to the climate crisis and explore solutions towards more sustainable models of living and working.

This webinar will reflect on the experience of the Climate Action Almanac, which works with science fiction writers globally to inspire a wave of narratives around what positive climate futures might look like. The initiative has provided a model of integrating creativity and the power of storytelling with the reality of climate change across many different communities.

Learn about some of the libraries that have developed initiatives harnessing the potential of imagination to inspire climate action.

Reserve your spot

Start-up Stars: Championing Green Businesses
Date: Thursday 10 October
Venue: Business & IP Centre, British Library, 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
Free but reserve your spot 

In this special edition of our ever-popular Start-up Stars series, we are celebrating Green Libraries Week and shining a spotlight on small business owners that put sustainability at the heart of what they do.

We have invited an inspiring panel of business owners who will speak about what it takes to turn your excellent idea into a purpose-led business. The panel will explore how small changes in your business can make a big difference.

Reserve your spot

Catering showcase by Graysons
Friday 11 October 
12.00 – 14.00
Kings Library Café, British Library, 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB
Free – just show up

Did you know there are more than 150 rare varieties of crops and breeds in the UK and more than 4,500 recorded worldwide? For Green Libraries Week our caterers Graysons are hosting a free sustainable popup to showcase some of the innovative approaches they are taking to food waste and how they’ve been partnering with Slow Food in the UK to save some of these British food varieties from extinction. This year they are focusing on Dorset Blue Vinny cheese, Pink Fir Apple potatoes and Hampshire watercress.

Food samples will be available.