4. Grow and manage the national collection

The Library is developing a 262 linear kilometres of fully automated, high-density, book storage facility, offering controlled environmental conditions compliant with BS5454:2000. The Library took partial possession of the Automated Storage and Retrieval System in December 2008. Testing of the warehouse management and control system was completed and preparations began for moving the collections.

Most current partnerships for collaborative collection development are to be renewed. Discussions also took place with the Imperial War Museum and the National Museum of Science and Industry. The transition from print to e-journals was slower than anticipated on account of subscription and tendering issues.

The Social Sciences team continued to map and build knowledge of the collections: an overview of content by discipline and research theme is provided on our website's social sciences pages. Featured subjects range from asylum and migration, to corporate social responsibility, gang culture and qualitative methods in social research.

A new content strategy for science, technology and medicine was developed. More than 70 meetings took place with external stakeholders and there was regular contact with Research Councils, the National Institute for Health Research and the Cancer Research Institute. TalkScience events proved very popular. One, held to coincide with the Darwin200 celebrations, was sold out within two days.

Good progress was made with UK PubMed Central (UKPMC), the digital archive which provides free online access to a vast collection of biomedical and health research literature. The British Library is leading on the new user interface which is scheduled for delivery in 2009/10. The Wellcome Trust invited us to develop further our ideas around dedicated information support for researchers.