Pulped books spark fury

Article Abstract:

Details of thousands of irreplaceable research documents which have been pulped by the British Library under a books disposal programme have emerged in a 123-page document which lists around 30,000 research reports, journals and books that have been discarded from the library's Official Publications and Social Sciences Reading Room since 1990. According to Richard Grove, research director of the Centre for World Environmental History at Sussex University, this is the greatest loss to the world of scholarship since fore destroyed the Great Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century AD. Clive Field, director of scholarship and collections at the library, concedes that the documents could have been destroyed, but notes that it never attempted to keep secret the fact that it was disposing of documents and that now only duplicated items were disposed of.

Management dynamics, Management, Company business management

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'We'll replace pulped items,' pledges library

Article Abstract:

The British Library has assured culture secretary Tessa Jowell that it will try to replace documents that it pulped in a 1990s book cull without paying sufficient regard to the document's research value. It had been revealed that 80,000 items from 28 countries had been destroyed by the library following a 1989 review. Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the library, states that the library has adopted a new disposals policy and that now, only duplicates can be discarded.

Libraries, National, National libraries

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Don't pulp the past

Article Abstract:

Issues relating to the destruction by the British Library of tens of thousands of reports and books under a disposal policy. It is argued that while the library may be short of space, the destruction of such rare material is untenable as some of the material that was destroyed will now never again be available to researchers.

Analysis

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