private partnerships for cultural heritage online dish 2011

Debate: Between Public Domain and Private Funding: Private Partnerships for Cultural Heritage Online -The British Library Experience

Neil Infield – Manager Business & IP Centre

2DISH 2011 – December 2011 - Neil Infield - British Library Business & IP Centre

What is the British Library for?

We exist for anyone who wants to do research – for academic, personal or commercial purposes


Three large scale projects at the British Library in recent years

1. Microsoft partnership to digitise 25 million pages of out-of-copyright books.

Neil Fitzgerald, Microsoft’s digitization project manager. Although the project was well-planned and piloted, lessons were learned in the process. The BL and Microsoft were keen to share their own experiences. He stressed that “partnership” was the keyword.



2. November launch of the British Newspaper Archive website with brightsolid.

a. A fully searchable database of up to 4 million newspaper pages, mainly dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.

b. At launch the website will feature more than 200 newspaper titles from around the UK.

c. It can be accessed through pay-per-view or subscription via the web but can be viewed for free in the British Library’s Reading Rooms.



3. June 2011 - The Library and Google have entered a partnership to digitise 250,000 out-of-copyright books from the Library’s collections.

a. This major project will digitise up to 40 million pages from 1700-1870, from the French Revolution to the end of slavery.

b. It will include material in a variety of major European languages, and will focus on books that are not yet freely available in digital form online. Google are paying all the costs of digitisation.


Why did the BL embark on PPPs?

To enable us to digitise and give access to our content faster than our existing funding would allow.

To give wider access to our content faster. To demonstrate our commercial approach to our

government funders.


Experiences from PPPs and lessons learned

Flexibility is key to success Requires a big investment of time and effort, with no

guarantees of success. E.G. Two smaller scale bids for the Business & IP Centre

took 6 months and approximately 3 weeks of staff time. Bulding suitable sponsorship packages can be very

complex. Necessary to understand funders thinking i.e.

commercial.


Experiences from PPPs and lessons learned …

Funders are looking for different things, but always a clear return on their investment (ROI)

Business leads from sponsorship Branding enhancement opportunities and profile

raising Source data to enhance services (Microsoft and

Google) Income opportunities (brightsolid) Corporate social responsibility (very limited funds here

still)


Issues and tips

Issues The volatile current economic climate results in short

term decisions from corporates

Tips Best to have a dedicated staff member who can think

the same way. Realise that one size does not fit all funders. Make contacts as high as possible in funding

organisation. Find the decision makers with budget responsibility if possible.

Don’t expect something for nothing.