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British Library Land sale

The land behind the British Library is for sale. Few readers seem aware of this but there ought to be some discussion about this decision as it removes forever the possibility of the BL's expansion. It's my understanding that originally this land was earmarked for just such an expansion.

Given the current overcrowding of the existing space is it right to sell off this land to private developers? Should we be campaigning about this? Please let me know. If we do want to campaign then we need to get organised ASAP as hundreds of developers have already expressed their interest in purchasing the land.

You can read about this issue in the 'News' Forum. See:
http://www.britishlibraryforum.org/node/34
and
http://www.britishlibraryforum.org/node/39

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More too it, tho. Public

More too it, tho.

Public institutions can be staggeringly bad judges of commercial deals. But on the other hand any money that can be recouped from commerce, without betraying the reason for existence of the institution, lessens the burden on the taxpayer (at least in theory).

So when the BL runs a shop selling postcards to tourists, I think we can all agree that this is a Good Thing. If it also sells publications of value to us all, this is fine -- we can use it or use Amazon or whatever. But if it sells off journals to antiquarian booksellers, the line is less obvious. If it makes charges which effectively render the library largely useless - as high reproduction charges for readers (staff have special rates, of course!) tend to - then it calls into question why the public should fund it at all.

Many UK library institutions went through a period of daftness and stupid-greediness in the early 90's.

roger_pearse@yahoo.co.uk

Important institutions of

Important institutions of general public use like the BL should enjoy special status that would protect them in behalf of the nation. There should be limits, at least in such cases, to commercialism for the sake of culture and tradition. Is tradition no longer of value to the British, and to the British Library?