Enabling the vision
By 2030 the British Library will have completed a major
20-year programme of transformation. Our Growing
Knowledge strategy in 2010 set us on an irreversible
path to engage fully with the digital age.
The Living Knowledge era has seen us become ever
more open, creative and innovative across everything
we do, reaching out to new audiences and partners
across the UK and the world.
Now, with Knowledge Matters, we are setting a vision
of a British Library that has ‘re-centred’ itself –
geographically and symbolically – at the heart of the
UK, with modernised services, deepened and more
effective partnerships, sustainable ways of working,
and a culture that is more inclusive and accessible
than ever before.
The delivery of this vision will place big demands on
our organisation: from technology to estates, from
fundraising to finance, every part of our organisation
will have a stretching and vital role to play.
People
The expertise and commitment of all our
staff enables us to deliver a diverse and
valued range of services for our users, across
all our purposes. At the same time, we have
implemented change projects that range
from gradual improvements through to
major transformations – all to enable us
to better achieve our mission.
We know that realising our ambitions for
2030 will test our resilience. Investing in our
people will be an essential part of managing
the scale of change required: from skills and
training to reward and recognition, and from
succession planning to smart working. As a
large employer in both Yorkshire and London
we aim to increase the diversity of our
workforce to reflect the communities that
we serve in both locations.
We are already taking action on these
priorities and others, in our current People
Strategy, including important initiatives
such as our Race Equality Action Plan.
We will build on this to set out where key
investments in our workforce will need
to be made in order to enable our vision.
Our people priorities for 2023–30 are to:
• Deliver a refreshed People Strategy to
support the delivery of Knowledge Matters
• Fulfil our commitments to inclusivity and
equity for all our staff and ensure diversity
across all levels of the organisation
• Invest in employee wellbeing and
development, and embed throughout the
organisation, in culture, leadership and
people management.
Access, engagement
and inclusion
We are determined to ensure that our
services and collection are as accessible,
engaging and inclusive as we can possibly
make them to the people whose lives and
stories they reflect. We want as many
people as possible to experience the
collection we care for. These aspirations
also affect the way we will shape and
run our business as a major public institution.
In 2023–30, this means improving our
practice around how we design and change
our spaces and services in partnership
with others, particularly the people and
communities who use them; improving
the way we evaluate the impact of what
we do; and using that expertise to grow
and evaluate the impact of our outreach
activity and our work with our local
communities and involve them in shaping
our programmes.
Our access, engagement and inclusion
priorities for 2023–30 are to:
• Ensure we are truly open and welcoming
to all by improving the quality, reach and
equitability of our services, in-person and
online, for everyone
• Fulfil our Race Equality Action Plan
commitments to enact a generational
shift to become a more representative
and diverse organisation that is
welcoming and empowering for everyone
• Continue delivering and strengthening
our community engagement work in local
neighbourhoods, collaborating in support
of local heritage, entrepreneurship and
employability, and lifelong learning.
32 Knowledge Matters: the British Library 2023 – 2030
Knowledge Matters: the British Library 2023 – 2030 33
34 Knowledge Matters: the British Library 2023 – 2030
Knowledge Matters: the British Library 2023 – 2030 35
Sustainability
We have an existing overall goal to achieve
net zero emissions by 2050, compared to
1990 levels, in line with the UK Government’s
commitments expressed in the ‘Climate
Change Act 2008’ (with 2019 target
amendments). These Government
commitments also target a 78% reduction
by 2035. In this strategy period, we will be
seeking to meet and exceed these targets,
by adapting our ways of working and our
buildings to reduce our emissions.
As a national library and a repository of global
knowledge within a powerful network of
libraries, research and cultural institutions,
our opportunity to have a positive impact
goes far beyond decarbonisation. From
opening up climate science collections for
research in new and innovative ways, to
providing new culture and learning
opportunities that support climate literacy,
and supporting businesses to have a positive
climate impact.
We will work with our partners across
the sector, including the Green Libraries
Digital transformation
and technology
In order to deliver our vision, we have needed
to respond to a daunting array of technical
challenges to our digital infrastructure. If our
strategy is to succeed in growing demand in
a sustainable way, this is a period that will
require sustained investment and effort in
upgrading our core systems and platforms.
Our ambitions range from supporting game-
changing AI research, to helping more of our
users to understand online information and
how to use it. Knowledge Matters will require
ongoing transformation, and investment in,
not just of our technology infrastructure, but
of our culture, practice, and ultimately our
business model. This investment is vital not
just for our own work, but for the supporting
infrastructure we provide to our partners.
This includes enhancing core preservation
capacity in collaboration with our Legal
Deposit Library partners, and the LibraryOn
initiative: a new digital platform being
developed in partnership with Arts Council
England to promote what libraries bring to
their communities.
Our digital transformation and technology
priorities for 2023–30 are to:
• Procure and implement a new Library
Services Platform, so that we can
manage and improve access to the
collection
• Transform the user experience and
quality of our website and digital
resources for our users
• Ensure that our digital storage capacity
keeps pace with collection growth
• Work with partners to support the
further development of LibraryOn.
Partnership, to be part of a wider movement
– one that shares a common set of values as
well as best practice and learning on how to
undertake positive action and adapt to the
challenges we face.
Our sustainability priorities for 2023–30
are to:
• Continue decarbonising our buildings and
embedding best practice in environmental
performance in our new spaces
• Collaborate with people to open up the
collection in new and interesting ways,
to support work on solutions to the
environmental challenges we face – from
climate research to enabling sustainable
business and enterprise, and engaging
people through culture and learning, to
increasing climate literacy and visibility
of climate science
• Embed partnerships across the sectors
we work in to support wider change,
share and encourage climate action,
best practice and learning.
Finance, commercial
services and fundraising
Knowledge Matters looks set to be delivered
against a challenging financial context.
The immediate task for the initial phase
of this strategy is one of stabilisation and
recovery across our income streams. This
will demand innovation and creativity to
reach pre-pandemic levels, but we also see
opportunities over the longer term, as we
grow our reach both physically and online,
with increased footfall, new retail offers,
an improved digital experience and more.
A combination of careful, prudent financial
management and confident, bold investment
strategy will continue to be at the heart
of our approach to resourcing Knowledge
Matters.
We can’t do this by ourselves: we rely on
a broad community of people and funders
who generously support our work. This
next strategic period brings with it new
opportunities to collaborate on vital,
transformative projects, and we will continue
to develop our networks to unlock resources
for public value.
Our finance, commercial services and
fundraising priorities for 2023–30 are to:
• Ensure we manage our public funding
efficiently and to the highest standards
• Build back our commercial revenues to
their pre-pandemic levels
• Secure the philanthropic funding required
to complete our major development
projects and further open up our
collection and services to people
across the UK.
Right: Aerial view of the Urquhart building’s
solar panels in Boston Spa. Photo by Dan Watts.
36 Knowledge Matters: the British Library 2023 – 2030
Knowledge Matters: the British Library 2023 – 2030 37
Architects’ impression of the
viewing gallery of the proposed
new storage facility at Boston Spa.
Slab / Carmody Groarke.
Capital projects and
estates
In this next period, the transformation of
our physical spaces will underpin the full
range of our Knowledge Matters strategic
goals. Working to complete our three major
development projects in St Pancras, Boston
Spa and Leeds, will be one of our most
significant challenges in a tough economic
climate. Success will bring once-in-a-
generation opportunities to increase our
capacity to welcome visitors from further
afield, but also to transform the nature
of people’s experiences on site through
user-centred design.
Our Estates strategy will ensure that we
continue to invest in the vital task of
maintaining our complex building estate, and
will also seek to keep pace with the changing
world of work, providing functional, flexible
and modern workspaces for our staff working
to deliver this vision.
Our capital development projects and
estates priorities for 2023–30 are to:
• Complete our Boston Spa Renewed
programme on time and on budget,
and commence work on a permanent
Library site in the centre of Leeds
• With our partners, deliver a major
extension of our St Pancras site, to
create a brand new public space for
London that’s connected to our
community and open to the world
• Continue our essential core maintenance
programme, including replacing ageing
mechanical, electrical and building fabric
assets at both sites.
38 Knowledge Matters: the British Library 2023 – 2030
The big themes that will guide us
between now and 2030
Access, engagement and inclusion
Ensuring that the services we offer, and the collection
we hold, are truly ‘for everyone’.
Modernising our library services
Investing in skills, processes, systems and capabilities
to deliver the quality of library services our users deserve.
Deepening our partnerships
Collaborating with libraries and memory institutions
of all kinds across the UK and around the world, to
achieve more than we ever could by ourselves.
Sustainability and resilience
Reducing our carbon impact and collaborating
with partners to create a more sustainable future.
New spaces, North and South
In Yorkshire and in London, delivering new, world-class
physical spaces designed to welcome future generations
of visitors and users.
Our values
• We put users at the heart of everything we do
• We listen, innovate and adapt to a changing world
• We treat everyone with respect and compassion
• We embrace equality, fairness and diversity
• We act with openness and honesty
• We collaborate to do more than we could by ourselves
Knowledge Matters
The British Library 2023–2030
Knowledge Matters
The British Library 2023–2030