Public Engagement

I’m a Librarian and a Postdoctoral Researcher. (My secret skill is, basically, finding things!) I’ve just finished writing my second book – and I guess I’m lucky. I wasn’t dependent on the British Library. It’s too far away for me to visit more than infrequently. 

I keep coming across social media comments that “the British Library is doing nothing.” That they’re not taking the situation seriously. That “nobody knows what’s happening.” I don’t work at the British Library, but I do feel heartily sorry for anyone working there. They’ve been victims of a serious cyber crime, for heaven’s sake, and I’m sure that they’ve been taking the best advice about cyber security in light of the attack. It’s the kind of thing where they won’t want to divulge too much of what has been done, for fear of copycat crimes, but at the same time, we the public (especially scholars and academics) all know the end result. We can’t use their catalogue or their e-resources. Visitors have to wait whilst librarians look things up in paper and card catalogues, and with the best will in the world, the service isn’t quite what we’re used to. It’s devastating.

It’s not that the British Library hasn’t tried to keep us up to date:-

• Their homepage has a statement
• They’re giving service updates via “X” (Twitter) like this one from 1 December 2023
• They’re advising people to check Jisc Library Hub Discover (Retweeted by Jisc Library Hub on 15 December).
• Journalist Rachel Cook wrote to the Observer, and the Guardian retweeted it on “X” (Twitter):-

Writers left in a bind by British Library cyber-attack, but it remains a closed book
Rachel Cooke

Rachel Cooke’s letter to the Observer, link retweeted by the Guardian

• Chief Executive Sir Roly Keating has since released an update (11 January 2024) on Restoring our Services
• Additionally, a recent Computer Weekly feature provides some of the technical information that many people have been waiting for: British Library cyber attack explained: What you need to know (By Alex Scroxton, Computer Weekly Security Editor, 9 January 2024)

I think what worries me is that people may not know about other ways of finding information. Certainly, if the British Library is the only holder of a particular document, then you’re up the creek without access to that document. If the only way you can access a database, or a digitised copy of a rare document, is via the British Library, then similarly, you really are in a bind at the moment. I know. As a researcher myself, I know.

We’re Here to Help

But are researchers and students asking their own institutional librarians? And conversely, are library organisations saying, often enough (on social media and elsewhere), that librarians are happy to help wherever they can? OK, ‘often enough’ is as long as a piece of string, but say, several times a week? Are we the librarians telling our own patrons in our own libraries?

And if you’re stuck looking for information, are you aware where else you can look?

Options and Alternatives

If you’re at an academic institution in the UK, there is SCONUL Access. That gets you into other libraries as well as your own.

Anyone can look at Jisc Library Hub Discover to find out whether there are copies of books elsewhere in the country. You can find books in the British Library, sure, but also in dozens of other academic libraries, and other big libraries. Yes, databases and other online resources like journals etc, are generally restricted by licence to people AT a particular institution, but you can still sign up to SCONUL Access and go to look at books and other hard copy material in other universities etc.

Have you tried your big city public library?

Are you aware that inter-library loans can be obtained from nearly all libraries except the ones that have a legal deposit responsibility? They don’t just come from the British Library. Your university or college library can organise this. Public libraries do inter library loans too.

Have you looked on Internet Archive or Hathi Trust for digitised copies of older material? Even Google Books? 

Ask a Librarian!

Have you consulted your own specialist librarian to see if they can think of other ways you can get to see that crucial book or article? 

Have you looked at ResearchGate and reached out to scholars directly, if there’s a particular article that even your librarian hasn’t been able to source?

Now, I’m just one small academic librarian/postdoctoral researcher in one small academic institution. I can’t help everybody! But please, please, do reach out to your librarians. We can’t replace the invaluable, much-loved and extraordinarily well-resourced British Library, but we can certainly help you make sure that you haven’t left other stones unturned, that might be able to provide at least some of what you need?