Raising the standard

We are setting standards in the public sector for our expertise, creativity and innovation.

‘Despite its many virtues, the web offers few experiences of real beauty. The British Library has produced a delightful exception. Turning the Pages could be your first sublime experience online.’
www.swarthmore.edu

User experience

The multimedia system Turning the Pages brings our greatest treasures online. Last year it won five major web awards, including a Lifelong Learning award, the Yahoo! prize for most innovative site and the Information Industry Awards for best user experience. To win this it had to beat strong competition from Google and the science journal Nature.

Communicating value

The Library was overall champion in the Public Accountability Awards, run by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The award is open to all public sector and non-profit organisations. The judges commended our innovative Economic Impact Assessment, and the clarity and imagination with which we communicated the results to our stakeholders, for example in our Annual Report 2003/04.

Sound experience

The Sound Archive, one of the most comprehensive international collections of published and unpublished recordings, won the prestigious Berliner Award for its outstanding contribution to the world of sound.

Deep web

Our pioneering installation of Google’s new Search Appliance allows visitors to search the content of our website more deeply and consistently than ever before. The Library, Morgan Stanley and the United Nations worked with Google to embed the Search Appliance into their intranets and websites.

Diverse practices

The Society of Personnel Officers awarded our Diversity Manager, Sheila Hosangady, the Gold Award for her initiatives in promoting diversity in the Library. The Library was awarded the Two Ticks symbol for the positive steps taken to support and recruit staff with disabilities, and the HR team also won two awards for innovative recruitment campaigns during the year.

Starter for ten

The winning team on University Challenge – the Professionals comprised Colin Wight, our web editor, Kathryn Johnson, Curator of Theatrical manuscripts, Bart Smith (captain), a reference expert in the Reading Rooms and Ron Hogg, Slavonic specialist.

Next - Attracting substantial support