HomeCollect Britain has moved
The rich selection of digitised historic content on the British Library’s Collect Britain website has moved to the Library's Online Gallery.
When Collect Britain went live in 2003 it opened up online access to an unprecedented range of British Library content. Since then the Library has developed new and more extensive websites that are better configured to meet the demands of the material and the developing needs of its users. We have therefore migrated the content to these newer sites.
Much of the Collect Britain functionality, and the virtual exhibitions and themed tours, has moved across to the new sites, though in some cases with an interruption in availability.
All of the content will continue to be available free of charge.
The following image-based collections have moved to the Library’s Online Gallery:
- Asia, Pacific and Africa collections (photographs)
- Caribbean views
- Deptford plans and drawings
- Early photographically illustrated books
- Evanion collection of ephemera
- Illuminated manuscripts
- Kensington Turnpike Trust drawings
- King George III topographical collection
- The Crace collection of London maps
- Ordnance Survey drawings
- Philatelic rarities
- The unveiling of Britain
- Topographical drawings
- Victorian popular music
Moving the images to the Online Gallery has placed them alongside other British Library visual material, including some of our greatest treasures. Users will also benefit from an improved zoom facility.
The Collect Britain audio collections (‘Accents and dialects’, ‘British wildlife recordings’, and ‘Wax cylinder recordings’) have moved to the Library’s Archival Sound Recordings website. They are the first of a growing range of recordings that can be played by anyone. Licensing restrictions mean that only people in UK higher and further education or the Library’s Reading Rooms can listen to the other recordings on the site.
The Penny Illustrated Paper collection is moving to the Library’s new public newspapers website, where it will join over two million pages of digitised newspapers from the 19th century and earlier. While much of this content will be available on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, viewing Penny Illustrated Paper articles will remain free of charge. The new website will be available in 2009.
The Collect Britain virtual exhibitions (‘Caribbean views’, ‘Expressions of faith’, ‘Durham: echoes of power’, ‘Grimm’s Northumberland sketchbooks’, and ‘Literary landscapes’) are available on the Library’s Online Gallery.
The Collect Britain themed tours (‘On the trig’, ‘Lost gardens’, and ‘The old East End’) will be available on the Library’s Online Gallery in future months. In the meantime, the UK Web Archiving Consortium website holds archived versions of ‘Lost gardens’ and ‘The Old East End’.
The UK postcode search on Collect Britain will be available on the British Library Online Gallery in 2009. Map-based searching will follow.
The personal folders feature has been used by a tiny minority of Collect Britain users. However we hope to make a similar facility available on the Online Gallery later.
We are grateful to everyone who has helped to make Collect Britain a success over the last five years – whether through funding the project, helping to develop it, or through viewing the content available. The most important benefit of the site has been in providing access to little-known gems of the British Library’s collection. Moving the material to more suitable websites ensures that it will continue to be available in the years to come.
Please contact us if you have any queries about the move of the Collect Britain content and features.