A new building for the British Library
By the early 1970’s there was a great shortage of storage space for the collection at the British Museum and the 1971 ‘White Paper’ report recognised there was an urgent need to rehouse the collection. . The Library's annual report for 1973-74 stated "A new building on the Bloomsbury site is the British Library's most urgent need". In 1974 due to local opposition the government decided against housing the library in Bloomsbury. The nearest site to the Museum was a derelict goods yard west of St Pancreas station. The development plan consisted of two wings housing reading rooms, public area, exhibition hall, science and humanities and rare books collections. An atmospheric temperature controlled environment was to be installed underneath the building for storage of books. The catalogue hall was changed to the King’s Library and included a restaurant. The building was to house all of the library's collection and allow for future growth and development. Construction of the new library was such a large project and had many delays including meeting rising costs along with political change during that time. The British Library was not officially opened untill 1998 by HM Queen Elizabeth II.
The Indian Office 1982 The Indian Office library and records which included the entire archives of the British India Company foundation 1600 to independence were transferred from the Commonwealth and Foreign Office and housed there within. This is currently one of the largest archives collections in the world.
The Library’s first Website
This was launched in 1994 as known as the 'gopher'. The system delivered plain text files and accessed via a menu of selectted topics using a 'keyword' search. The website adopted the use of frames when it became popular in the late 1990’s. The British Library Website was completely redesigned in 2001 with improved navigation and easy access and the number of times pages were requested daily trebled from 1998 - 2004.
This was launched in 1994 as known as the 'gopher'. The system delivered plain text files and accessed via a menu of selectted topics using a 'keyword' search. The website adopted the use of frames when it became popular in the late 1990’s. The British Library Website was completely redesigned in 2001 with improved navigation and easy access and the number of times pages were requested daily trebled from 1998 - 2004.
