British Library online Annual Report scoops top award

Library reaches out to the iPlayer generation and wins Accountancy Age award - for the third time in four years

The British Library has won a top industry award for the third time in four years at the Accountancy Age Awards 2008. The Library's Annual Report & Accounts 2007/08 won the category for Best Annual Report (Public and Voluntary Sector), having previously won the award in 2005 and 2006.

The Library stood out in a shortlist that included the Audit Commission and the Cabinet Office - in the words of the judges: "The British Library's annual report makes outstanding use of video to convey what it is doing and stood out a mile."

See: http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2230405/aa-awards-2008-public-sector

The online Report features video clips of the Library's users talking about how we have inspired and supported them. It also offers behind-the-scenes insights into how the expertise of our staff underpins the success of our users, along with links to related resources and examples of collection items such as historic maps and sound recordings of oral history and wildlife. See it for yourself at www.bl.uk/knowledge

The editor of the Report, Ben Sanderson, said: "We're absolutely thrilled to have won this award. Dozens of colleagues from across the Library contributed their time, creativity and expertise to the project and the fact that we had so many magnificent stories to tell is a tribute to the work of people throughout the organisation."

One of the stories told relates to Stef Penney's novel, 'The Tenderness of Wolves' which won the Costa Book Prize 2006 and went on to become one of the best-selling UK fiction titles of 2007. In one of the featured videos, Stef reveals how she used the Library's Reading Rooms at St Pancras to research life in the backwoods in 19th century Canada:

"When I started I really didn't know what the story was going to be, but I soon found a wealth of material in the Canadian collections. The Library gives you an amazing freedom to develop ideas in an open-ended and organic way. .there are no time constraints and I found books that I just wouldn't have found anywhere else. Without that, I couldn't have written my book."

Every webpage gives users the opportunity to offer feedback or respond to a poll, and animated charts and video presentations by the Chairman and Chief Executive offer an overview of how the Library has performed over the past year.

For further information please contact: Jacob Lant at the British Library Press Office (telephone +44(0)20 7412 7110, email: jacob.lant@bl.uk)

Notes for Editors

1. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library's collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk