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The British Library and Microsoft are working together to make 25 million pages of content available to all.

The British Library continues to work with Microsoft on its development of the infrastructure for the National Digital Library.

A new strategic partnership between the two organisations - to digitise 25 million pages of content from the Library's collections in 2006 - is the first step in a long-term commitment to digitise still more in the future.

Microsoft and the British Library will work together to digitise around 100,000 out-of-copyright books and deliver search results for this content through the new MSN Book Search service help people find precisely what they're looking for on the web. MSN Search will launch an initial public beta offering in 2006.

Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, said, “This partnership helps us fulfil our vision of promoting ready access to our collection for everyone who wants to use it. This is great news for research and scholarship and will give unparalleled access to our vast collections to people all over the world: the items digitised will be available to anyone, anywhere and at any time.”

Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft said, “Our partnership with the British Library is not only about digitisation and preservation, but also about delivering a great experience for people accessing this amazing collection through British Library and MSN Web sites.”

Microsoft is already working with the British Library to help build the digital infrastructure for the National Digital Library providing software tools, advice and technical support to the Library's experts. The National Digital Library is a cornerstone of the British Library strategy launched in June this year ( www.bl.uk/about/strategy.html). The Digital Object Management (DOM) system, will enable the long-term storage, preservation and access to digital items such as e-journals, e-books and CD-ROMs acquired by the Library through legal deposit. The system will use open standards, allowing the Library to adapt to future shifts in storage, preservation and access technologies

Lynne Brindley said, “We are redefining the library in our development of the National Digital Library and are delighted to be working with Microsoft on a key part of this project. Our aim is to provide perpetual access to the intellectual output of the nation, which is increasingly digital. Microsoft's expertise, coupled with our own, will enable us to achieve this aim.”

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 vast collections include 13 million books, 7 million manuscripts, 4.5 million maps, 56 million patents, 3.5 million sound recordings, 8 million stamps, and 58 million newspapers in various formats. Further information is available on the Library's website.

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