The British Library goes digital

If you go down to the British Library today, you’re sure of a big surprise. Because as of last weekend, it’s archiving not just every book published in the UK (its traditional role), not just every e-book published in the UK – it’s archiving every website based in the UK. In terms of what we’ve conventionally understood by the word ‘library’, it’s as big a change as there has ever been.

‘Capturing the nation’s digital memory’ – that’s the phrase the British Library themselves are using about the venture. Your first response might be: ‘the internet archives itself, doesn’t it? It’s called Google.’ But as Lucie Burgess, the library’s Head of Content Strategy, tells me: ‘There are lots of websites that cease to exist – politicians’ ones, for instance. Straight after a general election candidates’ sites get taken down, or, if they’ve been elected, get turned into their site as an MP.’