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A View from a National Bridge

Cynics say that the Chairman of a Non-Departmental Public Body (which is what, in UK constitutional terms, the British Library is) has only two really important things to do. One is to hire or fire the Chief Executive and the other is to avoid being fired himself. All the rest, it is said, is really second order stuff. There is some truth in this, but I was fortunate to be the Chairman of the British Library Board who oversaw the successful opening of the new building at St. Paneras and, after more than 30 years of waiting, there was nothing second order about that! The brief when I took the job was admirably clear and brief: Get it [the St Pancras building] finished; get it open and working and get it out ofthe newspapers. I take more than a little satisfaction in knowing that we have done just that and that the news stories are now usually rather favourable. Readers love the reading rooms and the enhanced quality of the associated services we are consistently recording over 85% satisfaction rates in our reader surveys. Visitors marvel at the showcase exhibition galleries and the collections stored at St Pancras are now housed in a state-of-the-art controlled environment. The building stands as a confident symbol of the importance of all UK libraries to national cultural, educational and economic success. I also take satisfaction from the fact that, under my Chairmanship, the BL Board reaffirmed the priority it wished to be given to the library's acquisitions and preservation programmes, thus reversing the pattern of budgetary attrition brought about by years of 'salami slicing'. The other main priorities we set during my term for digital library services; new partnerships with other institutions; support for the key objectives of the New Labour administration such as access provide a platform for the library's emerging