The People's Heritage
A Strategic Framework to Deliver the Vision
A Report produced by the Society of Chief Librarians
and the Scottish Library and Information Council
with the endorsement of The British Library
Report prepared by David Liddle
Email DavidLiddle@compuserve.com
Web page http://www.awegis.net/davidliddle/
Contents
Executive Summary
1. The Vision
2. The Issues
3. The Legal Deposit of Local Material
4. The Retrospective Conversion of Records and Digital
Access
5. The Digitisation of Content
6. A Strategic Direction for Implementing the People's Heritage
7. Approaches to Implementing the Strategic Direction
8. An Outline Action Plan to Implement the Strategic
Framework
List of People Contacted in Producing this Report
The People's Heritage is an ambitious and imaginative project which aims to make local collections available nationally through access to records of the material and to selected material itself through digitisation. Its implementation will bring together three strands of work which already involve numerous agencies and programmes and which is funded by various existing and future funding streams. These strands of work deal with the issues of the collection and the responsibility for the legal deposit of local material, the retrospective conversion of records and the linking of distributed databases and the creation of content for the National Network through the digitisation of selected local material including text and images. This report consists firstly of an overview of current, relevant activity in each of these three major issues.
This overview is followed by a recommendation for a strategic direction for implementing The People's Heritage. In view of the amount of current activity being carried out by a variety of different agencies whose activities are already largely inter-linked and co-ordinated, it is recommended that The People's Heritage should be tagged as an identifiable activity embedded in the programmes of existing agencies. While it would have an identity as a unifying theme, it would be a vehicle for delivering key aspects of existing programmes by activity at local level, particularly, though not exclusively, through the Public Library Service.
Implementation of this strategy will require agreement on a suitable sponsoring framework and on the creation of a series of relationships with the agencies, organisations and programmes which already exist. It will be essential to be clear about priorities for action which help those existing bodies deliver their programmes and which are most closely aligned with the current and future funding streams. The report concludes with an outline action plan to take these issues forward.
It has become apparent in the course of the research leading to this report that there is widespread support and good-will from the relevant agencies towards the aims of The People's Heritage and an eagerness to work in partnership with its sponsors. A number of windows of opportunity are wide open, including in the new environment created by devolution and the need to make practical progress in implementing the New Library Network. Progress needs to be rapid and decisive as deadlines, particularly for relevant funding opportunities, are fast approaching.
This report in its final form has been endorsed by the British Library. They have welcomed the initiative as a positive step towards ensuring that local collections are made more widely available and accessible, therefore opening up more of our national heritage. The proposals fit well with the British Library's strategic aims regarding co-operation, partnership and participation and they intend to support the work actively.
Local collections held in our libraries, museums and archives represent a rich dimension of our national heritage. Material relating to a locality, county or region sheds light on the "DNA" of our identity as citizens and members of communities. Special collections held locally, often as a result of historical happenstance, are prime sources for the understanding of people, ideas and events which have shaped the identity of our country, continent and world.
If "All history is local history" then national collections can give at best only a partial view of our identity and how it was formed. Any attempt to record, understand and preserve our national heritage requires that the squares in the patchwork of our recorded history should be sewn together in a coherent whole. This is the purpose of "The People's Heritage". Put more practically, the task is to enable access nationally to local collections by the creation of records and access to them and, through digitisation, to significant sources of material itself.
This is a vast and ambitious undertaking, one that is not possible to conceive of in terms of a single practical task. The People's Heritage will be a process, rather than an outcome, but a process which will, as it progresses, open up more and more of our national heritage. It will embody a number of other tasks and projects which will have different, though related, outcomes. Addressing a number of different issues, it will involve many different partners.
Ambitious as it is, The People's Heritage also fits in with a number of existing programmes at regional, national, European and sector level. To progress it means finding where different programmes and priorities converge and identifying the links between them, appealing to multiple funding streams while at the same time preserving the integrity of the project. This report aims to be a first attempt to do that, to map different activities and the agencies whose programmes and activities match, at various points, those of The People's Heritage. The report sets out a strategic framework and looks at various funding streams which might match elements of the strategy. It will also suggest an outline action plan which will move different elements forward.
The concept and practical implications of The People's Heritage touch on a wide range of issues throughout the Library and Information community. The three principal issues which form, at this stage, the suggested vehicle for moving the strategy forward are:
The Smethurst Review of the policy and arrangements for the legal deposit of printed publications in the British Library, published in 1997, arose out of concerns that material published outside of the mainstream was not being collected adequately by the legal deposit libraries and the report highlighted the impossibility of the statutory Deposit Libraries being able to be the collectors and keepers of all published material on a comprehensive basis. The proliferation of published material and its increasing variety suggest that this responsibility can never be discharged by these six national libraries alone. British Library studies suggest that it holds less than 50% of titles published and/or held by local collections and records offices. The DCMS subsequently asked the deposit libraries to "take forward as a matter of urgency their work on increased co-operation in collection policies and management of printed material received under legal deposit and on increased selectivity". A new Legal Deposit Act is expected to extend the coverage of legal deposit to non-print publications, including microform and electronic publications.
Andrew Phillips, now retired from the British Library, who led the implementation programme, took the opportunity of UmbrellLA 1997 to emphasise that "a distributed national published archive is already a reality which awaits closer co-ordination in order to benefit users, now and to come". Andrew Phillips discerned the beginnings of a coalition between national, public and academic library sectors in 1997. The British Library is keen to seek co-operation with the public library sector on the collecting and cataloguing of local publications and on ensuring long term access to them. The BL endorses the need for a coalition between national, public and academic library sectors to ensure the most comprehensive legal deposit of printed material.
Such an agreement would ensure that material published in a particular geographic area by non-mainstream publishers will be collected in that area, regardless of its relevance to local studies in that area. It is important, particularly for the public library sector, to be clear that local publications are not necessarily the same as local collections or local studies material. Locally published material may be of significance to local studies although local collections can include material not published locally. The BL wishes to ensure that local publications of all kinds (not just materials of interest to "local studies") are identified, collected and recorded for the national bibliography. Another related issue is that of good bibliographic control and its inclusion in the distributed national bibliography.
"Heritage material" may also be another category of public library holdings where terminology needs to be clarified. LASER announced in its Autumn/Winter issue of "LASERLINK" that it had recently been commissioned by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Library Association to undertake a five-month survey of heritage material held in local authority public libraries in England. An important aim of the survey is to fill gaps in present knowledge of the existence, condition and accessibility of heritage material in public libraries in England. Findings from the survey will be used as appropriate in the Strategic Plan being prepared by the HLF for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and as a basis for policy and priority formulation in the HLF. The term "Heritage material" may describe material of great monetary value or rarity which is significant in a national context which, however, may neither be published locally nor be of relevance to local studies.
At a meeting with the British Library on 14 December 1998, representatives of the SCL asked if the British Library could carry out some further analysis of the figures presented by Andrew Phillips relating to the holdings by the BL of local material. Were there differences, for example, between urban and rural areas or between different types of material? This would help to determine the scope for improved coverage through sharing the collection responsibility.
Loughborough University has obtained BLRIC funding for a project to develop models for the collection of local materials and for improving access to them relating particularly to holdings in Leicestershire and Rutland. This arose from a joint BL/ LIP seminar which was held at the suggestion of the BL. Funding was awarded following a specific approach to the British Library. A researcher has been appointed and the project was due to begin on 15 March 1999.
Subsequent work on "Smethurst" implementation is being centred on the recently established Co-operation and Partnership Programme within the British Library. This will take the form of a small unit which will implement the BL's strategy on co-operation with the wider LIS Community. The strategy itself was presented in draft to a Focus Group on 5th March. The final version of the strategy should be ready in April or May.
There is some debate about whether the responsibility for enabling co-operation lies with the BL or with the LIC, but the BL seems clear that it has a responsibility to devise and implement a strategy which forms a framework for its relations with other agencies. In addition to the costs of the unit, the British Library intends there to be a budget for funding work which encourages and implements co-operation. The value of the new BL co-operation fund is likely to be £250,000 in 1999/2000 and £500,000 in each of the following two years.
In Scotland, SLIC (The Scottish Library and Information Council) together with the National Library for Scotland, are concluding a study to determine the coverage of the collection of local material at national level. A report was due to be available in April.
There are particular issues in Ireland, north and south. These are dealt with more fully in an appendix to this report on specific national issues which is published separately. The Streatfield Report on legal deposit in Northern Ireland is due to be published this summer (1999).
It is not a primary concern for this report to consider the role that universities might play in making local materials more available, but the issue of which libraries should take responsibility for the long-term storage of what material was also raised by the Group on a National/Regional Strategy for Library Provision for Researchers which produced the Anderson Report for the HEFC. The Group came to the view that there would be economies and efficiency savings to be made in establishing a more formal national retention framework and one of the Anderson recommendations was that "Such a framework should be discussed by the legal deposit libraries with the other libraries prepared to accept this form of long-term commitment". Links between the public and academic sectors are becoming stronger and there are significant developments at local level including, for example, LASH, the Learning Access Sunderland Scheme. Opportunities for joint working between the public and academic sectors are explored later in this report.
It should be emphasised that both collecting and bibliographical control are ongoing tasks and there will be a continuing need to ensure that material which is being published now is collected and recorded. In order to support these continuing responsibilities, resources will be needed on an ongoing basis and a long term commitment from all the partners is crucial to any system involving distributed responsibility.
Collaboration on the collection and management of a national resource archive is only one issue, however. This archive cannot be accessed unless the material within it is accessible through machine readable catalogues.
The need to improve access to research resources in the UK was highlighted by the Report of the Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review Group (The Follett Report, 1993). Subsequently the Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology (FIGIT) in turn produced a report which surveyed the number of catalogue records in HE institutions awaiting conversion.
It was recognised by the British Library that this issue should be looked into at the same time in relation to the coverage of records in other sectors. From its preservation programme it therefore funded research from Philip Bryant, at the time Director of UKOLN (United Kingdom Office for Library and Information Networking), to survey the extent of non-converted catalogue records in special libraries and records relating to special collections in public libraries.
Both sectors, the public and academic, were therefore engaged in research on the same issue at the same time and Philip Bryant was subsequently commissioned to bring both the strands together by research into the possibility of a national programme across all sectors for retrospective conversion of catalogue records. His report was subsequently published under the title of "Making The Most of Our Libraries" (1998).
Bryant graphically demonstrated the extent of the problem in what he called "the scale of the task". He concluded that in higher education libraries, 28 million records await conversion. Nine million await conversion in public libraries and this figure incorporates some five million individual titles, the majority contained in special and local studies collections. All other libraries contain a further 9 million records awaiting conversion.
A joint group called The Pathfinder Group has been formed specifically to take forward the outcomes of "Making the most of our Libraries". The membership of the Pathfinder Group includes LINC, the LIC, BL, CURL, RSLP, the National Council of Archives (which has stated that the most effective primary aim for archives should be the development of electronic catalogues and indexes) and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
UKOLN and the National Council for Archives have been commissioned by the Pathfinder Group to produce a national strategy for the conversion of catalogue records in the library and archive sectors. It has become apparent that, should a selective approach to retrospective conversion be adopted, local history material may be an area to be selected for conversion work. The Pathfinder Group's draft proposals were discussed at a conference entitled "Full Disclosure" at the British Library in May. It is anticipated that following the approval of a strategy, funding will be sought to implement it, involving the libraries concerned and with co-ordination at the national level by LINC, BL or LIC as appropriate.
Meanwhile, CURL reported in July 1998 that it had been successful in obtaining a grant of £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the costs of a feasibility study to investigate how a national programme of retrospective conversion of catalogue records could contribute to broadening access to the nation's heritage of printed books. The study would aim to achieve the maximum potential transferability of the project architecture to other sectors of the UK archive and library community concerned with documentary heritage.
In Scotland, LAIRD (Library and Archives Integrated Resources Database), looked at the state of cataloguing in the local studies collections of Scottish libraries. This review, begun in June 1996, concluded that the situation was no better than that which Bryant had discovered in his survey. The LAIRD Group, composed of SLIC, together with the National Library of Scotland and the Local Authorities, are preparing a NOF bid which will look at retrospective conversion in 4 or 5 specific subject areas. The selective subject approach seems to be the one adopted by all agencies who have looked at practical ways to implement their programmes and this approach will be recommended for The People's Heritage in section 7.2 of this report.
In the HE sector, meanwhile, retrospective conversion is being pursued by the HEFC through the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) backed by what is referred to as "Anderson money". The RSLP issued a Call for Proposals which were due by 19 March 1999. The four strands to the programme are
The links between the HEFC and the British Library are close and are consolidated by both personalities and structures. For example, Michael Anderson is a member of the British Library Board and David Bradbury of the British Library is a member of the Research Support Libraries Programme Steering Group.
The creation of a single search facility requires means of searching other libraries' catalogues which may be in different formats from those available to the searcher. The ability to access other catalogues (interoperability) is being pursued by UKOLN through the MODELS (moving to distributed library services) project. The process adopted is to put libraries together in "clumps" to create "virtual" libraries, accessing their catalogues through Z39.50 searching. Examples of clumps which have been created are the Music Clump, the M25 libraries around London, and "Ridings", a clump of Yorkshire libraries which might be of particular relevance to People's Heritage because of the issue of local identity. UKOLN, with JISC and EU 4th Framework funding, is running the Metadata Project looking at resource discovery through subject access. The 4th Framework also funds the Irish IRIS project.
The need to develop digital finding aids is acknowledged in "Building the New Library Network" where it is recommended that in addition to setting aside a "modest" sum for this purpose, the New Opportunities Fund should discuss the scope for more substantive provision with the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The report "Virtually New" prepared for the LIC by Information North stated that the cataloguing and indexing of collections is a necessary corollary and in many cases a prerequisite for digitisation.
It should be noted that all the work referred to above concerns existing catalogue records. There is no evidence of co-ordinated work on the retrospective cataloguing of material where no record currently exists. It should be understood, however, that there are different levels of record completeness ranging from full catalogue records at one extreme to basic notes of collection content at the other.
"Libraries will offer access to educational and cultural material and take on an important new role as creators and developers of new digital content" (Building the New Library Network).
The report which preceded this, "New Library, the People's Network" suggested that the areas of local studies and special collections would be the key elements for public library content on the proposed national network. Research carried out by Information North for the Library and Information Commission and published under the title of "Virtually New" reported that most local digitisation projects were, in fact, in these areas. "Virtually New" observes that the material in these collections is often unique and digitisation allows access to it in places other than its physical location.
There are two aspects of strategic significance to the concentration on the digitisation of local and special collections. First, these categories of material contribute most closely to the academic sector's aim of providing access to material which supports academic research, postgraduate and undergraduate teaching and learning. Second, the collection and management of these categories of material brings together at local level the libraries, archives and museums communities and provides links at local level which can be reinforced strategically at national level.
In terms of current activity in digitisation at local level, "Virtually New" identified 10 completed projects, 37 current projects and 32 planned projects, some of which were at the stage of applying for lottery funding. So far, the completed projects involved mostly photographs and text databases. Current projects cover maps and art images as well.
The SCRAN Project (the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network) is described in "Virtually New" as one of the most advanced UK models for a gateway to distributed digital resources in the heritage sector. Most of the content is from museums in Scotland but libraries and archives also contribute material. SCRAN's primary purpose is educational, to support the study, teaching and appreciation of Scottish history and culture. However, the Public Library Service in Scotland will have relevant material which can contribute to SCRAN's purpose and the possibility of their closer involvement serving as a pilot for The People's Heritage should be considered.
In the academic sector, digitisation is being carried out in the context of JISC funding and the e lib programme. The Higher Education Digitisation Service (HEDS), funded by JISC and based at the University of Hertfordshire, offers advice and digitisation services for the whole of higher education sector.
Within the British Library, digitisation would have been one of the outcomes of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project from which the bidders subsequently withdrew. This project, which could be described as implementing "New Library" within the BL, is now likely to be directly funded from the DCMS. There could be opportunities for a tie-in with digitisation in public libraries. If the BL holds only 50% of local material held at local level, there is presumably a case for avoiding duplication in digitising this material and consequently, scope for co-operation between the public libraries and the BL.
In the context of "Building the New Library Network", large scale digitisation will take place in the context of the New Opportunities Fund's legal obligations to ensure that projects have a demonstrable educational purpose. NOF has not yet established the organisational infrastructure for setting criteria or for assessing and awarding grants, and, while "Building the New Library Network" recommended criteria for eligibility and the prioritising of grants progress would appear to have to await the establishment of NOF's own structure.
Digitisation work is currently being progressed and planned in a large number of areas and it would be prudent for this to be done in the context of what are already fairly clear parameters for NOF. It would also help if progress could be initiated within the public library sector (or perhaps the "local" sector) to implement the "Virtually New" recommendation for a central source of expertise in digitisation in the local authority library sector (including issues to do with intellectual property). Steps could also be taken now to open up the potential for partnership with the private sector.
"The New Library Network" is not the only context for implementing digitisation, however. The Information Society Technologies Programme (IST), known as "Creating a User-friendly Information Society" of the EU Fifth Framework has as one of its key actions the creation of multi-media content and tools. The IST Working Document dated 5 November 1997 stated that "The work on digital heritage and cultural content would aim to expand the key contribution of libraries, museums and archives to the emerging culture economy, including economic, scientific and technological development." There is a striking congruence here with much of the UK based activity described above and connections are clearly waiting to be made, although there is no apparent structure in place for doing so currently. The IST Programme plans to hold its first call for proposals on 16 March 1999. The budget for 1998-2002 is Eur 3.6 billion.
The plethora of programmes, agencies and funding streams could, were it not for the cohesion of the LIS community, and particularly the co-ordinating work of the British Library and others, create fertile ground for duplication, overlap, waste and confusion. Instead, the environment is one in which cohesion, collaboration and co-operation are possible, desirable, encouraged and expected.
Into this crowded territory the sponsors of "The People's Heritage" could, if they wished, try to fit another stand-alone programme and this is a key strategic option.
The recommended alternative is to go with the grain of current activity and to integrate with existing programmes and activity. In as far as "The People's Heritage" had a separate identity, it would be as an identifiable stream of other programmes and delivering key aspects of them. It could, perhaps, serve as a Kite Mark to authenticate applications for funding to different agencies for different programmes.
The key strategy recommendation is therefore:
That "The People's Heritage" should be tagged as an activity and funding stream embedded in the programmes of existing agencies. While it would have an identity as a unifying theme, it would be a vehicle for delivering key aspects of existing programmes by activity at local level, particularly, though not exclusively, through the Public Library Service.
If this strategic direction is approved, a framework needs to be established for implementing the programme. This framework involves:
The following section looks at these implementation issues. This is followed by an outline action plan to move the process forward in the short term.
This section examines more closely the issues identified in the previous section as being key to the construction of an implementation framework. The subsequent action plan will be formed from the issues identified at this stage.
The aim of The People's Heritage is to create a multi-media resource discovery database which provides a finding aid to material held in local collections and access to significant amounts of digitised content. The key characteristic is that the material is largely locally generated, held locally, managed by local agencies and used primarily by local people. The sponsoring framework should logically, therefore, be a structure which represents those local agencies. The relevant local agencies would appear at this stage to be:
To a large extent, although not in a uniform way or through uniform arrangements, these agencies are part of the local government structure. In some cases the departmental structure of local authorities brings these services together organisationally and, in most cases, the leadership at service delivery level is managed by public librarians but also sometimes by archives and museums professionals. For the implementation to be effective, therefore, structures need to be set up at local level to co-ordinate the relevant activities of libraries, museums and archives services where these do not already exist.
If the recommended strategic direction for The People's Heritage is adopted, sponsorship needs to be managed at national level. One approach to this would be to mirror at national level the professional representatives of the identified local agencies. This would suggest a structure involving chief public librarians, the Museums and Galleries Commission, the Council of Archivists and the Royal Commission on Historic Manuscripts. There might be a role for the Local Government Association and their involvement, at least, should be considered.
The structure of local and national co-ordination and co-operation established for the successful NEWSPLAN programme for the identification and preservation of local newspapers may offer a practical model. There are ten regional committees covering the whole of the British Isles, each bringing together representatives of local authority libraries, the regional library system concerned, local museums and archives, local newspaper groups, the BL and other national libraries, and, in some cases, the academic sector. There is a national steering committee which is a panel of LINC, bringing together a representative from each regional committee, and from other appropriate national level bodies.
There are some advantages in recognising a regional dimension to the supporting structure. Although regional co-ordination between libraries, museums and archives may be weak, the public library and the academic library sectors come together at regional level in the Regional Library Bureaux. Regional structures are about to be strengthened and the significance which is likely to be attached to Regional Cultural Consortia, particularly their links with the Regional Development Agencies and the devolution of significant lottery and other funding decisions to regional level suggest that a regional focus for the sponsoring structure of People's Heritage might be appropriate. A regional approach might also put the English Regions on a more equal footing with the national agencies in Wales, Scotland and Ireland where national models of co-operation may evolve which could be co-ordinated at UK level. There are key strategic choices to be made here and further discussion is necessary before the picture becomes clearer.
If the key strategy recommendation in section 6 is adopted, the priorities for implementing The People's Heritage need to be identified from among those of the agencies and programmes in which The People's Heritage is to be embedded as a unifying strand.
The agencies and programmes and priorities which link with activity which is central to The People's Heritage would seem to include:
|
Agency |
Objective |
Programme |
|
British Library |
Legal Deposit |
Smethurst implementation |
|
British Library |
Co-operation and Partnership Programme |
Funding programme |
|
LIC/BLRIC |
Recorded Heritage |
Preservation Call |
|
HEFC |
Anderson |
RSLP |
|
Pathfinding Group |
"Making the Most of our Libraries" |
Outcome of UKOLN study |
|
UKOLN |
Creation of a single search facility |
Interoperability programme |
|
LIC |
New Library Network |
Implementation |
|
Heritage Lottery Fund |
New Library Network |
Access to records |
|
New Opportunities Fund |
New Library Network |
Content creation |
|
DCMS |
New Cultural Framework |
Various |
|
British Library |
Internal digitisation |
Successor to PFI project |
|
HEFC (JISC) |
HEDS |
Digitisation programme |
|
EU Fifth Framework |
Creating a User-friendly Information Society |
IST 3rd. key action |
In addition to these agencies with main-stream programmes into which The People's Heritage can be embedded are those with which co-ordination and co-operation will become necessary. Such bodies include the Museums and Galleries Commission, the Council of Archivists, the Royal Commission on Historic Manuscripts and the new national body for the built heritage.
It has been suggested that there is a case for delaying the digitisation of content until other aspects of the infrastructure, retro-conversion, OAPCs and a standard interface network, have been put in place. Digitisation is, however, taking place now and is increasing on a rapid scale and is the subject of a number of funding bids. It is the view of the SCL and SLIC that this cannot practically be delayed and that a strategy for The People's Heritage needs to co-ordinate and give guidance on priorities across all the related activities.
It is not possible at this stage to identify priority activities across the three major issues, legal deposit, access to records and digitisation of content, but this will need to be agreed at an early stage of implementation. One approach would be to agree the priorities for digitised content creation. These would need to be targeted on the outcomes that contributed most to the priorities of the host programmes. A start could be made on a national archive in very specific areas such as (drawn at random) the work of the architect G.E. Street, the growth of Britain's aerospace industry, local implications of the Reform Act, industrialised housing of the 1960s. Work on creation or conversion of records relating to specific material could be prioritised, on the basis that where researchers find records relating to material, they are likely to want access to the material itself. However, it should be possible to include the conversion of many more records than digitised material in the priorities for retrospective conversion. A way in to the issue of responsibility for collection and legal deposit may also be by way of specific material, categorised by publisher, subject or format.
Considerable work needs to be done at the planning stage on selecting and agreeing areas for priority action which is beyond the scope of this report on the outline strategy framework.
If the key strategic recommendation of embedding The People's Heritage in the programmes of other agencies is agreed, there clearly needs to be a structure for conducting communications and relations between the sponsoring body for The People's Heritage and the host agencies and organisations. At this stage it would be appropriate to identify those organisations and to flag up the need to take forward the issue of arrangements for co-operation. The potential "host" agencies with which links will need to be established include:
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|
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|
|
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Liaison will need to be established in relation to specific national priorities which are supplementary to general UK issues. The appendix to this report outlines some issues of a specific national nature for Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
A national context for the integration of work at local level with archivists
and museum and gallery sectors will need to be established. This would seem
to require a working relationship to be established with the Museums and Galleries
Commission (while it is an independent organisation), the Council of Archivists
and the Royal Commission on Historic Manuscripts and perhaps others.
7.4. Potential Funding Opportunities
Not all the potential funding streams can be identified at this stage, some are emerging and others will become relevant as the implementation of The People's Heritage progresses. Some potential funding can be identified which is not yet in place and other funding opportunities need to be taken up as a matter of urgency.
The potential funding opportunities which can be identified at this stage are:
|
Funding |
Timescale |
|
British Library Cooperation Focus |
Funding available in 99/00 £½ m full year |
|
BLRIC Preservation Call, research |
Typical bid £30-40K pa, call closed. Transferred to LIC April 1999. |
|
RSLP Call (Anderson money) |
Bids close 19.3.99. |
|
UKOLN study outcome no programme yet |
|
|
EU 5th Framework IST Programme |
1st Call 16 March, bids by mid June '99. |
|
LIC, HLF, NOF New Library implementation |
Further Wolfson funding. |
7.4.1. RSLP call on Anderson money
The current call for proposals is now closed. The four strands to the programme are outlined in section 4.1 of this report. Up to £30 million is being disbursed over the three years 1999-2002. Although there are four strands to the programme, proposals for targeted retrospective conversion of catalogues will not be sought separately but should be submitted under the more appropriate of the two strands to which this current call relates, namely, Collaborative Collection management and the Research Support for Humanities and Social Sciences. Consortia proposals are strongly encouraged and positively required for the Collaborative Collection Management strand. Proposals for digitisation projects will be given consideration. It will be essential to demonstrate why the collections are important to HE and other researchers in a regional, national or international context.
Non-HE bodies cannot receive funding directly from RSLP. In the case of consortia proposals, the lead body will be an HE institution. This means that the Public Library Sector will need to participate in this programme as part of a proposal from an HE body. Cross-sector bids may be co-funded with other grant awarding bodies. It will be important in future funding bids, both HE only and cross-sectoral, to identify and collate proposals which relate to local materials and are relevant in the context of The People's Heritage.
7.4.2. EU 5th Framework first call
This will be an application based, product centred and pragmatic programme. Major themes are cross-sector, transferable, inclusion of "horizontal" themes, private sector involvement and trans-national partnerships. There will need to be specific outcomes, generic issues will have less chance of success. Proposals which link with and add value to the 4th Framework will be welcomed. The UKNFP will be able to give specific guidance on biding.
7.4.3. British Library Preservation Call
The BL's Research and Innovation Centre has always had a research funding stream concerned with preservation and a further call for research proposals (the Preservation Call) was issued under the Preservation of, and Access to the Recorded Heritage Research Programme, with a deadline of 15 December 1998. (It should be noted that the research grants function of the Research and Innovation Centre merged with the Library and Information Commission on 1 April 1999.) The two themes for research are: (i) a National Policy Framework for a National Preservation Policy and (ii) the Preservation Management of Traditional and Digital Materials. Themes were identified by a focus group with known interests and expertise in this field and six projects have been selected for funding, to begin in the financial year 1999/2000. The focus group met again in March to identify gaps and new suggestions for research funding in this area. It is emphasised, however, that this programme is concerned with research rather than development, but there may be room for funding practical activity from which there is a learning outcome. Research is funded in a variety of institutions and by a variety of individuals. The proposed BL co-operation unit is likely to include within its remit projects relating to preservation.
7.4.4. Future Funding Possibilities
There are further potential funding possibilities although there is currently little detail on some of these. They could include the William H. Gates Foundation, the National Grid for Learning, DfEE Lifelong Learning Partnership funding (in principle £9m for adult learning in the public library sector over 3 years) and the possibility of funding specifically in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as a result of devolution budgets and specifically in Scotland, the continuation of Challenge Funding.
7.4.5. Taking forward the implementation of New Library
he framework for action to implement the library network has been established by the publication of "Building the New Library Network" and it now seems clear that it is time for the Public Library sector to take ownership and move implementation forward in ways which they can and with resources which are available to them. The People's Heritage could be the first step in providing content for the national network.
Key elements of the national implementation structure are beginning to be put in place, including the appointment of the Chief Network Advisor (Chris Batt) and the establishment of a grant assessment process for the New Opportunities Fund. Targeted and selected creation of digital content and the development of finding tools are central to the framework which has been agreed and the development of The People's Heritage and a structure to take it forward would represent prudent and visionary planning on the part of the Public Library sector and would be likely to attract funding from complementary streams which are already established.
7.4.6. Scope for partnership with the private sector
This is an area which will need to be developed in order to take full advantage of both EU funding and of the opportunities available in the implementation of New Library. The theme also ties in with PPP, one of the Government's key strategies.
Retrospective conversion can now be achieved by the use of faxed title pages and, were a leading library software producer and other partners in the areas of record collection, networking, digital creation and for extracting value through a sustainable financial model to come together, they could offer the prospect of an integrated product offering catalogue creation, digital collection, delivery over the Internet and income generation.
The elements of the Action Plan are distributed throughout this report and are not in clear chronological order, although it will be clear that the implementation tasks fall into different timescales. The Outline Action Plan is presented here under three suggested timescales, immediate, medium term and long term. However, all these timescales are condensed because the vehicles which are recommended for moving The People's Heritage forward are already on the move.
| Ann Chapman | UKOLN |
| Robert Craig | Scottish Library and Information Council |
| Paul Eden | Loughborough University |
| Ray de Graff | North Yorkshire County Council |
| Margaret Haines | Library and Information Commission |
| Nigel Macartney | British Library |
| William Macnaught | Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council |
| Norma McDermott | Library Council of Ireland |
| Ronald Milne | Research Support Libraries Programme |
| Geoffrey Smith OBE | Consultant to Libraries and the Book Trade |
| Pearl Valentine | NE Education and Library Board, Northern Ireland |
| Richard Wellings | BLCMP Library Services Limited |
| W. Gwyn Williams OBE | Denbighshire County Council |