2007 Press Releases

Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age
December 17
This beautifully illustrated new book by renowned manuscripts expert Michelle Brown provides an authoritative introduction to Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age, aided by...

Turning the Pages 2.0T wins a top award for excellence and innovation
December 12
The partnership between the British Library, Microsoft and Armadillo Systems wins the 'Best Web-based Technology Project' award.

Pinter archive saved for the nation: British Library acquires extensive collection of UK's greatest living playwright
December 11
The archive of Britain's leading playwright and writer, the 2005 Literature Nobel Laureate, Harold Pinter, has been acquired by the British Library. This pre-eminent archive comprising over one hundred and fifty boxes of manuscripts, scrapbooks, letters, photographs...

Bird Sounds of Madagascar
December 05
Rare recordings released by the British Library, 5 December 2007.

Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library, criticises debate on Intellectual Property as 'too focused on teenagers, music and consumer industries'.
November 30
The British Library's Chief Executive Lynne Brindley has chaired a significant debate about Intellectual Property in the digital age and called for the IP debate to move beyond music to include society, culture and the economy.

Double win for the British Library
November 30
Awards for pioneering online annual report and best communications campaign.

European Digital Library Foundation welcomed by the Commissioner
November 28
Yesterday, the European Commission endorsed the work of the European Digital Library Foundation when high level EC officials met members for the formal handover of their statutes. "Europe's citizens should all be able to enjoy our rich...

Marvellous to Behold: Miracles in Medieval Manuscripts
November 28
What is a miracle? Why have people for millennia believed in the power of the divine to intervene in human affairs? How has the wonder-working God of Abraham shaped the traditions of Jews, Christians and Muslims?

Archivist of the Year 2007
November 27
Dr Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive, is named Archivist of the Year 2007.

British Library brings harder-to-find journal content online through new subscription database
November 27
New database will provide article level access to over 67,000 journals and over 400,000 conference proceedings.

Love never goes out of fashion
November 26
While a recent survey found that Britons are sending fewer love letters, the British Library might inspire today's Cupids with the oldest known Valentine's message written in English.

Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library, criticises debate on Intellectual Property as 'too focused on teenagers, music and consumer industries'
November 22
The British Library's Chief Executive Lynne Brindley has chaired a significant debate about Intellectual Property in the digital age and called for the IP debate to move beyond music ...

British Library appoints four new international sales partners to distribute new online services
November 21
New agreements will provide local sales presence in key territories in Europe, the Far East and the Middle East.

Stories of survival and loss: British Library archives Haemophilia and HIV Life Histories
November 20
The unheard voices of the people with bleeding disorders infected with HIV through their treatment, and the often silenced stories of the parents, partners, children, brothers and sisters ...

The Holkham Bible: A Facsimile
November 19
On 21 November 2007, the British Library publishes a facsimile of one of its greatest treasures, the much loved 14th century Holkham Bible picture book.

Breaking the Rules - The Printed Face of the European Avant Garde 1900-1937
November 16
British Library exhibition, Breaking the Rules (9 November 2007 - 30 March 2008)

Business benefits under one roof
November 14
British Library Business & IP Centre delivers on first-year targets, announces new funding

Final 'lost' Ayckbourn play found
October 29
Love After All, thought destroyed more than 40 years ago, is re-discovered.

The Future of Business: Enterprise Week at the British Library
October 29
The British Library Business & IP Centre presents seminars, workshops, and events as part of Enterprise Week 2007

Hold the front page
October 22
New 19th century British Library Newspapers website launched for UK Further and Higher Education communities

National libraries join forces on bibliographic standard
October 22
The British Library, Library and Archives Canada, Library of Congress and National Library of Australia to implement new bibliographic standard for describing and accessing library resources...

HRH The Princess Royal opens new British Library Centre for Conservation
October 17
HRH The Princess Royal visited the British Library on Wednesday 10th October to officially open the new Centre for Conservation.

A Houseful of Books - 60 Years of The Folio Society
October 12
Since 1947 The Folio Society has produced beautifully illustrated books - large and small, classic and modern, fiction and non-fiction - for lovers of literature all over the world.

The Medieval Flower Book by Celia Fisher
October 12
This sumptuously illustrated A to Z guide to medieval botany takes a closer look at 100 major varieties of flowers and plants that appear within the centuries-old pages of these manuscripts.

Queen Elizabeth II: A Portrait in Stamps
October 9
A new book celebrates the key events in the life of the Queen and the British royal family through the hundreds of stamps produced during her reign, from the 1950s to the present day.

Emerald Announces Digitisation of Complete Archive
October 5
British Library assists in project digitising articles dating back to 1800s.

The Spoken Word: Graham Greene
September 28
Historic BBC recordings published for the first time.

Embrace the spirit of the Avant Garde
September 26
British Library challenges postgraduate creatives to 'break the rules'.

Wagner in London
September 21
The Royal Opera House production of Richard Wagner's complete Ring Cycle is expected to be one of this year's greatest cultural highlights. To coincide with these performances, the British Library pays homage to the celebrated composer in a small exhibition, Wagner in London.

Changes to security procedures: bag searches
September 13
In March this year, the British Library introduced public bag searching at the main entrance to the St Pancras building. Since then, we have kept the situation under continual review and have maintained regular liaison with the Metropolitan Police...

Hidden treasures revealed to the nation
September 05
Winners announced for British Library competition for public libraries.

An Evening for Jack Kerouac
September 03
On 17 September 2007, the British Library presents a tribute to American author Jack Kerouac, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of his seminal novel, On the Road. In association with Penguin Books.

Missing Constable sketch discovered at British Library
August 23
A 'lost' early sketch by John Constable and hundreds of original artworks and autographs by prominent 18th and 19th century artists have been discovered at the British Library. The beautifully bound 13-volume collection entitled The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., features over 1,600 additions including portraits, views, autographs, engravings and original drawings including Turner correspondence and works by the artist's contemporaries, many previously unknown or considered 'lost'.

Competition uncovers national treasures
August 14
The British Library has announced the shortlist for its national competition to make spectacular treasures from public libraries available via the web. Between last May and the closing date, at the end of June, librarians across the UK sent in some 82 entries that have dazzled the judges with their uniqueness and variety.

Small businesses get expert insight into market research in tie-up between British Library and Yellow Pages
August 07
Entrepreneurs and small businesses are being offered free expert advice on how to carry out essential desk research on their markets and customers, thanks to a series of special workshops being run at the British Library Business & Intellectual Property (IP) Centre (www.bl.uk/bipc) in London, sponsored by Yellow Pages.

Medieval hunting manuscripts from East Anglia saved for the nation
July 30
Two unique fifteen century illuminated manuscripts, the Kerdeston Hawking Book and leaves from the Kerdeston Hunting Book have been allocated to the British Library under the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme, administered by the Museums, Library and Archives Council (MLA), which allows items deemed to be national treasures to be given in place of inheritance tax.

Unique British Library images available online
July 26
Re-launched Images Online resource makes 20,000 rare images available to businesses, designers and researchers

British Library goes Web 2.0
July 26
Video, interactivity and feedback bring the British Library's Annual Report 2006-07 to life...

Countdown to Freedom
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of Indian independence
July 10
To mark the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence and the birth of Pakistan, a selection of British Library material relating to India's fight for freedom from colonial rule - much of it banned by the British Government in India between the 1910s and the 1940s - will go on display for the first time.

Shakespeare's First Folio
July 10
Shakespeare's Globe and British Library publish facsimiles of the plays.

American Treasures
July 04
On 4 July 2007 - United States Independence Day - the British Library will unveil a small display bringing together a selection of its American collections, many of which have rarely been exhibited. Ranging from early colonial items to a first edition of On the Road by Jack Kerouac, the exhibition highlights some of the British Library's American treasures.

Turning The Pages 2.0 now available for museums and libraries worldwide
July 03
Innovative 3-D software from the British Library to enable museums and libraries to publish their own material online.

Medieval masterpiece saved for the nation
The Wardington Hours
June 27
The Wardington Hours, a lavishly illuminated medieval manuscript, has been acquired by the British Library following a successful fundraising campaign, and will go on public display on 28 June 2007. The acquisition was supported with a major grant of £250,000 from leading art charity The Art Fund, together with donations from Friends of the National Libraries, Friends of the British Library, and Breslauer Bequest. The richly illustrated manuscript will be exhibited in The Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library, alongside other manuscripts produced by the same workshop.

Knowing the need: UK survey of library and archives nominated for conservation award
June 22
The National Preservation Office (NPO) has been shortlisted for the prestigious Conservation Awards for 'Knowing the Need', the first large scale survey of the state of preservation in the United Kingdom's libraries and archives.

Last chance for libraries to reveal their hidden treasures
June 14
British Library competition attracts entries from across the United Kingdom.

Taking your invention beyond the garden shed
June 08
British Library's first 'Inventor in Residence' to give one-to-one advice to aspiring inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs.

Spring chickens, strawberry pickers and Swaziland sugar cane.
June 06
Exploring food from farm to fork - discover the findings of a unique National Life Stories project which explores the changing face of British food culture over the last century.

Tyldesley Diary Press Statement
May 23
The Monday 14 May edition of The Times carried a story headed: "How British Library allowed 300-year-old diary to be ruined". The story reported that Peter J Tyldesley, a descendant of Thomas Tyldesley the diary's author (and a solicitor and consultant for the Law Commission) had deposited the diary (1712-14) with the British Library. When Mr Tyldesley went to collect the diary, he found that its original binding had been removed and replaced, and that its pages had been disfigured with stains.

Free guided group tours and Shop discount offer for Sacred: Discover What We Share
May 23
Free guided tours of the British Library's groundbreaking exhibition Sacred: Discover what we share (runs to September 23) are being offered to adult groups of 10 people or more booking as a group. Groups will also receive a 10% discount in the British Library Shop when they spend over £5.

Saved for the Nation New British Library Centre for Conservation
May 17
The new British Library Centre for Conservation provides a world-class facility for all aspects of book conservation including education and training, as well as state-of-the art technical facilities for the nation's Sound Archive, enabling unrivalled standards of care for the Library's priceless collections.

Memories of Pinter wanted: 50th anniversary of first stage play to be captured by British Library
May 15
Students at Bristol University are marking the 50th anniversary of the debut of Harold Pinter's first stage play, The Room which was originally performed by a student group in the Bristol University Drama Studio in 1957, with their own production in the Old Squash Court Theatre on 24 - 26 May 2007.

First ever national email archive to be created
May 03
London, 3 May 2007: To celebrate the UK launch of the new Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft has announced a unique collaboration with the British Library, to create the first ever archive of British emails today.

"The angriest voice wins..." Sir Jonathan Sacks, 30 April 2007 - Faith Leaders condemn media culture driving people to "spectacular" violence and rudeness to secure press attention
April 30
A discussion at the British Library this week featuring four of the most pre-eminent faith leaders of the UK from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, chaired by Lord Melvyn Bragg, saw the broadcaster and panellists condemn the media for contributing to prejudice through its "dangerous" failure to report on religious dialogue, preferring instead to emphasise rifts between communities, creating a world in which people need to become spectacularly violent or rude in order to gain a hearing for their cause.

Sacred on Location: Sacred touring programme explores faith in the UK..
April 26
Sacred: Discover what we share (27 April - 23 September) is a groundbreaking British Library exhibition that brings together some of the world's most important and beautiful religious texts for the first time. Exquisite and rare examples of Jewish, Christian and Muslim sacred texts from the Library's collections will be presented alongside treasures on loan from other institutions in a unique and compelling modern context.

British Library Publishing unveils Sacred books
April 17
British Library exhibition Sacred brings some of the world's most important and beautiful religious texts together for the first time. Exquisite and rare examples of Jewish, Christian and Muslim sacred texts from the Library's collection - considered to be one of the greatest in the world - will be shown alongside treasures on loan from other institutions from 27 April 2007. To accompany this major exhibition, the British Library will publish a number of related new books throughout April and May.

Young Researchers create a BIG BANG at the British Library
April 17
An animated film, based on the research of young people into faith and religion, will be featured in the major forthcoming British Library exhibition, Sacred: Discover what we share (27 April - 23 September 2007). Thirteen young adults worked closely with visual artist Sara Haq and filmmaker Daniel Saul to create the film.

Sacred Ways
April 12
This May Bank Holiday, the British Library hosts an afternoon of free art experiences and performances inspired by the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. Tying in with major exhibition, Sacred: Discover what we share (April 27 - September 23), the British Library presents a May Day festival with a difference. The festivities will include outdoor performances, open workshops, food, crafts, installations and displays reflecting on sacred places, journeys and traditions.

Spoken Word: W.H. Auden - Rare historic BBC recordings published for the first time
April 05
Surviving BBC radio broadcasts of one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century, W.H. Auden, are published by the British Library on 11 April 2007, as part of its highly acclaimed series devoted to historic recordings. The 2 CD set, released to commemorate the centenary of Auden's birth, features sleeve notes by Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate.

Celebrating the Proms: from Henry Wood to Hyde Park - The Folio Society Gallery
March 30
A new exhibition in The Folio Society Gallery at the British Library marks the 80th anniversary of the BBC taking over the running of the Proms in 1927. The display draws on the British Library's rich collections of photographs, programmes, documents and historic recordings together with archive material from the BBC to chart the history of this enduring musical phenomenon.

Royal patrons announced for British Library exhibition
Sacred: Discover what we share
March 29
The British Library is proud to announce that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, are the royal patrons of its forthcoming exhibition, Sacred: Discover what we share, which presents some of the world's earliest-surviving, most important and beautiful religious texts from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.

British Library launches Sounds Familiar, an interactive spoken English website
March 28
Haps you'd like to record yourself having a blether with a friend, mebbe get your mam, grandfer or nana reminiscing, or you'd like to talk about somewhat else entirely. Even if you think you have naught to say, the British Library insists that there's no need to keep the noise down.

Enslavement & the Struggle for Liberation: Commemorating the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British Transatlantic Slave Trade, 25 March 1807
March 22
To mark the 200th anniversary of the parliamentary abolition of the British Transatlantic slave trade, a small display of related books and documents will be shown in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library.

Passage of Time - Uncovering the Untold Histories of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 22
To mark the 200th anniversary of the parliamentary abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade, the British Library and BBC London are jointly hosting a commemorative day in the British Library Conference Centre.

'Lost' Rachmaninov symphony on display in British Library
March 21
The original manuscript of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, presumed lost since its first performance in 1908, will be displayed for the first time in the British Library Treasures gallery from Wednesday 21 March.

Looking for a novel Mother's Day gift?
Adopt a Book and save it for the nation
March 08
With 18 March fast approaching are you looking for a unique Mother's Day present that is both original and inspiring? The British Library's Adopt a Book scheme is the ideal way to help protect the world's greatest book collection and give your mother a very different gift that will last a lifetime.

Masterpieces of medieval art displayed together for the first time at the British Library
March 05
The Bedford Hours: Owners and Illuminators
23 March - 2 July
Admission Free

The Bedford Hours
March 01
A fine art facsimile edition of one of the greatest medieval illuminated manuscripts in existence is published by the British Library, in association with Faksimile Verlag Luzern, on 23 March 2007. The publication coincides with the opening of a new British Library exhibition, The Bedford Hours: Owners and Illuminators, which will be on display 23 March - 2 July 2007.

Colindale Newspapers Migration Strategy
March 01
The British Library holds the finest newspaper collection in the world. Over 30,000 people use the national newspaper collection every year.

Demos Cultural Diplomacy Report
February 28
British Library plays vital international role.

A Poet in the Family: The Coleridge Archive 27 February to 27 April 2007
February 26
A fascinating insight into the character and behaviour of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge is revealed through his own notebooks, together with journals, correspondence and reminiscences from family and friends in a small display at the British Library from 27 February - 27 April 2007.

Bloomsbury Life below stairs:
February 19
Charleston housekeeper Grace Higgens archive.

Mothers of Invention
February 15
Female entrepreneurs are doing it for themselves.

Homeward Bound or An Exercise in Collecting Beginnings By Lizzie Ridout
February 14
Lizzie Ridout, Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library, launches Homeward Bound or An Exercise in Collecting Beginnings, an artist's book accompanied by a set of limited edition prints.

Believing in London
February 12
World faith debate at the British Library

W H Auden: A Centenary Reading
February 09
With Grey Gowrie, Richard Howard, Andrew Motion, John Fuller, Sean O'Brien, James Fenton and Peter Porter

British Library launches new Reprints service
February 05
Innovative services to streamline provision of reprints and e-prints from the British Library.

Hidden treasures brought to life
January 30
British Library announces national search for the greatest hidden treasures in UK public libraries

Leonardo notebooks reunited online
January 30
British Library and Microsoft announce historic Turning the Pages 2.0 versions of Codex Arundel and Codex Leicester at the launch of Windows Vista

What does the mating call of a Haddock sound like?
All aboard for an aquatic adventure in sound with two new wildlife CDs from the British Library Sound Archive
January 26
On 26th January 2007, the British Library launches two new additions to its popular Wildlife CD series, Sounds of the Deep and Sounds of the British Coastline. The collections enable the listener to eavesdrop on the underwater communications of sea life, conjure up the sounds of the British seaside via the squawks and squeals of seabirds, or to listen in on some of nature's more intimate moments, such as the call of a spawning male Haddock engaged in a noisy display of courtship..

British Library and US Department of Energy to collaborate on global science gateway
January 25
The British Library, London -- Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, Under Secretary for Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has signed an agreement with Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, to collaborate on the development of a global science gateway. The gateway would eventually make science information resources of many nations accessible via a single Internet portal. 

The Possibility of Poetry: from Migrant magazine to artists' books
January 19
A new British Library exhibition charts the short but extraordinary life of the 'little magazine' Migrant - one of the most influential poetry magazines of the 20th century, recently credited as being fundamental in inspiring the creativity of the 1960s British Poetry Revival.

William Blake: Under the Influence
January 10
Under the Influence pays tribute to the work of English poet, artist and visionary, William Blake, in the 250 th anniversary year of his birth. It reveals the range of Blake's commissioned work, his engagement with contemporary thinkers, and his profound and continuing influence on today's artists and writers. This small display in the British Library's Sir John Ritblat Gallery features unique items lent or donated by writers and artists who have been inspired in some way by Blake's life and work, including Tracy Chevalier, Philip Pullman and Patti Smith.

New generation: meet the Ethical Entrepreneurs
January 09
Role model entrepreneurs reveal how start-ups can make a difference while also making a profit - panel discussion and networking event at the British Library, January 22, 2007.

UK PubMed Central launched
January 09
New online resource to promote free access to research and further biomedical discovery.

Back by popular demand - Dame Anita Roddick to share more insights at the British Library
January 08
Legendary entrepreneur announces 2007 programme of advice sessions at the British Library Business & IP Centre.

Backfiles unlimited
January 03
British Library launches fully integrated journals digitisation service for publishers.