Content strategy
The British Library embarked on a review of collection development in 2006. It looked at its Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences collections and collecting through a subject approach, using the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) categories. The consultation exercise of 2007, which had 143 responses, supported the new strategy, and since then we have been in a process of implementation.
Implementation process
The process of implementation has included:
- the development of an action plan
- the setting up of content groups with a lead curator to ensure collecting supports researcher needs
- the revision, where the consultation suggested changes, of the subject templates
- consultancies on datasets and research publications from India and China
- criteria for assessing collection development partnershipsÂ
What has proved more difficult to achieve has been a significant increase in the the pace of the transition from print to electronic because of a combination of technical and legal difficulties.
