§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when she intends to publish the reports on the British Library drawn up by(a) Sir Peter Levene, (b) Sir Kenneth Eaton, (c) consultants Kennedy and Donkin and (d) consultants TBV. [16217]
§ Mr. SproatThe efficiency unit scrutiny of construction procurement by the Government, which included the British library construction project as one of its case studies, was published on 7 November 1995 and is available for purchase through Her Majesty's Stationery Office bookshops. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State also sought advice from Sir Peter Levene on the progress of the construction project. As a result, Sir Kenneth Eaton was asked by the Department to undertake a short review and reported back in March 1995. My right hon. Friend does not intend to publish the report by Sir Kenneth Eaton and Kennedy and Donkin. Sir Kenneth Eaton provided confidential advice to Ministers and the Kennedy and Donkin report contained commercially 275W sensitive information, some of which could be the subject of future litigation. TBV Consult, formerly the Property Services Agency, is in contract with the Department of National Heritage to provide on-going project management services and, as such has not been commissioned to produce consultant reports.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when the British library reading rooms will be provided with open access to the world-wide sourced scientific technological and manufacturing journals, periodicals and books, classified as to subject matter. [16221]
§ Mr. SproatThe British library's science reference and information service currently makes available to readers, on open access in its reading rooms, the most recently published material from its collections in these categories, and will continue to do so following the move of the library's science collections to the new building at St. Pancras. Older material can be obtained for readers on request. The open access material is classified according to a scheme developed specifically for scientific and technical literature.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what has been the total expenditure on buildings and fitments since 1972 on the British library's document supply centre. [16069]
§ Mr. SproatExpenditure on accommodation for the document supply centre over the last five years is set out in the table:
£000 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1994–95 1995–961 Rent and rates 119 150 152 145 147 Utilities 219 288 265 275 251 Building maintenance 488 435 558 712 526 Professional and estate fees 205 94 158 227 201 Cleaning 185 197 243 229 198 Total 1,216 1,164 1,376 1,589 1,324 1Estimate. No capital costs have been incurred in relation to document supply centre accommodation during this period. Information in this format in relation to earlier years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many notices of intention to implement redundancy have been serviced by the British library by reading room and location. [16219]
§ Mr. SproatThe British library has served no redundancy notices on members of staff. The chief executive has informed library staff of the need to reduce the overall staff number over the next four years, and invited all staff to consider whether they wish to indicate an initial expression of interest in voluntary redundancy.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what monitoring she has carried out in relation to binding costs for books and journals at the British library. [16210]
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§ Mr. SproatMy right hon. Friend does not routinely monitor the costs to the British library of binding books and journals, but the library reports to her annually on its performance. The most recent such report, for the financial year 1994–95, includes information on the number of volumes bound and on unit binding costs in the form of comparisons of performance during the year with plans before the year began. The library monitors unit costs for binding each month.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will make a statement on the operation of the subject matter classification system used for British library holdings of books and journals and the time span of the systems utilised. [16071]
§ Mr. SproatThe British library's science reference and information service provides readers with open access to a significant proportion of the material in its collections. The classification scheme used for open access material was originally introduced in the 1960s, and was developed specifically for scientific and technical literature by the national reference library for science and invention, which then held the science collections which are now part of the British library. The scheme is regularly updated to take account of developments in scientific disciplines. For general reference books which will be held on open access in the library's humanities reading rooms at the new St. Pancras building, the library is proposing to arrange material according to the Dewey decimal classification scheme, with an index based on library of Congress subject headings.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what revenues have been derived from reader-operated photocopier machines in the British library. [16072]
§ Mr. Sproatincome to the British library for the last two years from charges for photocopier machines operated by readers is set out in the table:
£000 1994–95 11995–96 Newspaper library 19 21 Science reference and information service 217 228 Humanities and social sciences 98 93 National sound archive 2 2 Oriental and India Office collections 18 18 British library information science service 2 2 Document supply centre 16 16 Total 372 380 1Estimated.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what has been the total number of(a) reader visits to and (b) holdings at the corn merchants store conversion in relation to the British library's document supply centre since 1979. [16070]
§ Mr. SproatBuilding 23 on the Library's site at Boston Spa in Yorkshire, which was known before conversion as the corn store, is used to store books published before 1980 for the library's document supply centre. The total linear storage capacity of its shelves is 45.75 km, 31.13 km of which is currently taken up by books. Building 23 is not itself designed to accommodate 277W readers, but the annual number of reader visits to the document supply centre's reading room since 1985–86 is set out in the table:
Year Number of reader visits 1985–86 4,605 1986–87 4,347 1987–88 4,502 1988–89 5,131 1989–90 5,688 1990–91 6,735 1991–92 7,403 1992–93 8,112 1993–94 9,210 1994–95 9,890 1995–96 110,580 1Estimated. Information is not available in this format for earlier years.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what provision has been made for the supply of books and journals from remote locations throughout the world to the British library. [16215]
§ Mr. SproatThe British library's document supply centre obtains items on loan from other libraries throughout the world for use in the British library's reading rooms or in other libraries in the United Kingdom. The library currently obtains some 7,000 items annually for readers in the United Kingdom in this way.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when the British library reading rooms supplying information for scientific research, manufacturing industry and technological innovation will be supplied with equipment allowing reader access to the Internet. [16220]
§ Mr. SproatThe British library is considering, taking account of considerations such as the additional costs involved, how information on matters such as science, technology and business which is available on the Internet might be made available directly to readers. At present, staff in the library's science reference and information service have access tot he Internet which they may use in providing information to readers.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what reports she has received in relation to public surveys of reader groups and their requirements and the extent to which these factors were taken into account in planning of services at the British library. [16211]
§ Mr. SproatThe British library consults extensively with its users through its advisory committees and by means of surveys of users, individual research projects, consultative papers, focus groups, open days and newsletters. The library's code of service sets out the standards which the library's users can expect, and provides them with the opportunity to comment on both the range and the level of the library's services. My right hon. Friend does not routinely receive reports on the results of these activities, but she expects the library to report to her on the range of services which the library278W provides, on service levels, and on readers' needs, as part of the annual process of planning and review of performance.