British Library Research Report 2021–22

Abstract

• The latest edition of our Research Report, covering the academic year October 2021 to September 2022 is available. This is the sixth issue of this publication, which has become an annual highlight in our communications about our research. It is an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate achievements of the year, and to inspire future research activity at the Library. Our research continues to be as varied as the collections we hold and the range of services we offer as the national library. One of the spotlights in this issue takes a look at several projects that are unlocking visual collections at the Library. We have vast holdings of prints and drawings within our collection, but the majority of this material is hidden without research and interpretation to make them findable and visible to our audiences. We see several examples of how research underpins Library exhibitions at various stages in the development and even afterlife of a physical display. A new venture this year was an exhibition at Leeds City Museum, co-curated with Leeds Museums and Galleries, inspired by the major Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project Living with Machines. Supporting our staff to develop research skills and expertise is another recurring theme in this issue. This year, we celebrated ten years of our in-house Digital Scholarship Training Programme, grew our membership of the AHRC Peer Review College, and enabled colleagues to take up fellowship opportunities and supervise PhD projects. In 2023, we celebrate the Library’s 50th anniversary. Our existing corporate strategy Living Knowledge (2015–23), which looks towards this milestone, affirms our organisational commitment to supporting research of all kinds. As I write, we are finalising a successor strategy to take us to 2030, which will build on the achievements of Living Knowledge and its framework of public value, while adapting to the challenges of a changing world. Research remains one of the core purposes of our organisation, and will continue to inform the other strands of our work: custodianship, business, culture, learning and international. We look forward to sharing more about research in the next chapter of our history in future reports.