International collection found elsewhere as a result of costs

Citation

Fitzsimons, E. (2001), "International collection found elsewhere as a result of costs", The Bottom Line, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2001.17014aab.002

International collection found elsewhere as a result of costs

International collection found elsewhere as a result of costs

Keywords: Collection management, Space planning, Libraries, Space utilization

Dateline: London, UK

The British Library has managed to gain shelf space without any new construction or new furnishings by an undisclosed weeding policy over the last two years. When books were found in London secondhand shops marked "British Library – withdrawn," the library admitted to withdrawing over 80,000 books. The news follows a report last month that the library has also disposed of some 60,000 volumes of historic non-British newspapers, nearly 10 per cent of its collection, also with the purpose of saving space. Nicholson Baker in a New Yorker (July 2000) article reported that the newspapers were offered first to other libraries and museums, some were sold at an unpublicized auction, and the remainder discarded. The newspaper weeding cleared over two miles of shelf space, but the library still receives copies of 2,500 British newspapers alone, causing the collection to grow a half-mile a year. The book weeding freed more than a mile of shelf space, which was almost immediately used, since the copyright law requires that the British Library receive a copy of every new book published in the UK. Available at http:\\www.ala.org/alaonline/news/2000/000814.html