CorpComms Magazine

The British Library is not the first place that one might associate with celebrity spotting, but head of communications Gill Webber says that it is an unexpected perk of the job.

'It happens quite a lot. Someone will come into the office and say I've just seen Johnny Depp or another Hollywood actor. It is quite fun,' says Webber. 'They come to use our resources.'

As the home of the National Sound Archive, actors often come to the British Library to listen to recordings of characters they may be portraying or to research accents and regional dialects.

When the actor Alun Armstrong was hired to play the part of Albert Einstein, he prepared by listening to the only recording of the scientist. Others come to research the background to their latest film or drama. 'They come to get into character,' says Webber.

She's certainly in character. A self-confessed avid reader,   Webber's book club has just finished Cannery Row, one of John Steinbeck's lesser known novels, while her passion for biographies has just seen her consume Kathryn Hughes' The short life and long times of Mrs Beeton.

'It was absolutely fascinating and educational,' says Webber. 'Mrs Beeton was not this matronly figure that you imagine. She died at the age of 28, and was a journalist who took bits of information from different sources to produce her iconic book.'

A snapshot in time

Much of the book draws on love letters between Isabella and her future husband, which the author read whilst studying for her PhD in Victorian history. It also offers an interesting insight into the importance of the British Library's archives.

'Letters are a basis of lots of research,' says Webber. 'They contain a huge amount of material that contribute to our knowledge.' Many Victorians did keep the letters they received and, while reading them often reveals intimate information, they are, as Webber puts it, 'a snapshot of life'.

The challenge today is to create a collection of the vast swathes of blogs, tweets and messages on social networks that provides an insight into what life is like today for future generations.

Consequently, the British Library was heavily involved in the creation of Digital Britain, the government's strategic vision to ensure Britain stays at the leading edge of the global digital economy.

Webber arrived five years ago when the British Library was still reeling from controversy over its Euston Road building, next to St Pancras Station, and the overrun of both time and money. Created by the British Library Library Act 1972, it finally moved into its new home in 1998.

She arrived from the General Medical Council, where she had worked on public policy issues. She had previously spent ten years at the BBC, including six as the head of media relations for the World Service, and found the Council something of a culture shock.

A very British institution

'I felt I had been too long at the BBC, which is why I left, but I soon realised I loved working for big public institutions. A friend once asked, Are you only ever going to work for something with British in the title?,' she laughs, but it's clear that this is Webber's milieu.

'The first few years at the British Library, journalists kept bringing up the building's costs in their articles,' says Webber. 'They never do that now. When I arrived, people kept highlighting the heritage story. But everybody now knows that we keep a copy of every book published in the UK, so we don't need to keep publicly mentioning that.'

She has chosen instead to highlight the breadth of the British Library's collections, which include the aforesaid National Sound Archive, 14 million books, including the private collection of Henry VIII, more than four million maps and over 260,000 journals.

On the morning we speak, Webber has just hosted a 'long lead launch' for magazines regarding a forthcoming summer exhibition of the British Library's maps.

The collection includes the world's oldest map, dating back to 200AD, and the largest book in the world, the Klencke Atlas, which takes six people to lift. Presented to Charles II in 1660, the atlas has never been publicly displayed with its pages open - an omission that the exhibition will rectify. 

'I have the best job in the world,' she says. 'Amazing people work here, and it is a privilege to listen to the curators, who are experts in their field. We have quite a lot of private viewings, and it is just great to hear them discuss the works.'

A modern role

She has also worked hard to promote the role of the British Library in the modern world. Its business centre, for example, was revamped in 2006 after it became clear that entrepreneurs did not want to read large research documents, but needed real-life advice and workshops. Today, it offers everything from seminars on intellectual property, advice on business plans and finance, and even has an inventor in residence.

'Our press coverage now reflects the diversity of the work that we do which brings the stakeholders really into focus,' she says. 'Before I arrived, we didn't really have many contacts with politicians and now they are great supporters of our work. Their support is absolutely crucial. If they don't fully understand us, then why should they support our funding?' Our role is really important. We are underpinning the knowledge of the UK.'

Webber has a nice way of illustrating the importance of the British Library to the real economy. 'We underpin the £60 billion publishing industry, but a documentary maker using our free services for research will generate real economic benefits [through employment, rights fees, overseas sales, for example].'

The British Library will receive £100 million of taxpayers' money this year, up from £92 million in 2007. It raises a further £30 million from corporate sponsors. Microsoft, for example, funded the digitisation of 65,000 out of copyright 19th century novels.

A digital future

'The whole digital library is a huge challenge,' admits Webber. Items can only be digitised where copyright is known. Anonymous newspaper articles or recordings of debates, such as the St Mary-le-Bow debates that took place every Tuesday lunch-time at the eponymous church between 1964 and 1979, prove difficult because if the author or speaker cannot be identified, and necessary permissions sought, digitisation cannot take place. But there is also the problem of money; it costs about £1 to digitise just one page of copy. The results, however, are changing the speed of academic research. 'We have just launched a website containing our 19th century newspaper collection,' says Webber. 'A researcher studying Crystal Palace, for example, might have taken months before this digitisation. Now they could complete their studies within days.'

Going forward, Webber and her team are working on 'A Vision for the British Library for 2020', considering its role in a 'brave new world where digital is the default,' she says. 'I imagine communicating this will keep me and my colleagues pretty busy!' 

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