Going one step further — The British Library joins the ranks of free Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040760 |
| Pages | 35-40 |
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Author | John Lowery |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Going one step
further - The British
Library joins the ranks
of free Internet
Service Providers
(ISPs)
by John Lowery, Research and
Development Officer, British Library
This paper is about the British Library's
free Internet access service, British Library
Net, launched in September 1999 as the
first ISP by a public sector
body.
The paper
explores the rationale behind the
development of the service, the work
involved in both its creation and ongoing
development and takes a look at future
trends in the ISP market. The contents of
this article had their genesis in a
presentation given by Brian Kefford of the
British Library at the Public Sector Online
2000 conference.
Background to the British
Library
The British Library (BL) was formed in 1973,
when a number of library collections of national
importance were brought together into one organi-
sation. Its collections long pre-date the formation
of
the
British Library, as they include the library
collections of the British Museum, which date
back to 1753, and the important scientific collec-
tions of the former Science Reference Library and
the National Lending Library for Science and
Technology. The BL has an outstanding range of
material, totalling more than 150 million items in
its collections, and is one of the most important
libraries in the world.
The British Library's collections are housed partly
in London, where most of the reading room
reference services are now provided from our
purpose-built building at St Pancras, and partly at
Boston Spa, Yorkshire, from where the Library's
Document Supply Centre provides over 4 million
interlibrary loans and photocopies or other types of
copies to more than 19,000 libraries and individu-
als in the UK and abroad each year.
The British Library's strategic objectives lay great
emphasis on the improvement of access to the
collections and the provision of British Library
services to remote users. The Library's new
Internet access service, British Library Net, is an
important part in achieving these objectives and
helps it to achieve its mission of being the world's
leading resource for scholarship, research and
innovation.
Why become an Internet
Service Provider?
The rapid growth in services offering free Internet
access to users dialling into the Internet is well
known. In the late 1990s, dial-up Internet access
had been offered by a number of different Internet
providers on a subscription basis, usually at a
monthly rate for a certain number of hours connect
time and additional charges per hour if you ex-
ceeded your limit. In September 1998, Dixons
broke this model when it launched the first free
Internet access service, Freeserve, which is still
one of the market leaders and has signed up nearly
2 million customers. Some of the subscription
services followed Freeserve's lead and dropped
their charges (BT's LineOne service for example).
At the same time, other commercial organisations,
worried by the prospect of being left behind in the
race for the e-commerce market, jumped on the
Freeserve bandwagon and the likes of TescoNet,
WH Smith, Currant Bun, etc. were born.
There are a number of reasons behind the develop-
ment of free Internet provision:
• The arrangement of the free Internet
providers with telecomm companies such as
BT involve a proportion of
the
cost of the
local telephone line charge to access the
Internet node going to the Internet provider.
• The opportunity to supplement telecom
income by placing advertising on the free
website.
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