Written question asked by Barry Sheerman (Labour) on Monday, 24 May 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 27 May 2004. It was answered by Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour) on Thursday, 27 May 2004 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Dept for Culture Media and Sport

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department has allocated for (a) the long-term storage of the British Library's newspaper collection and (b) the archiving of digital material as required under the Legal Deposits Libraries Act 2003. - Including figures.

Answer: Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding her Department has allocated for (a) the long-term storage of the British Library's newspaper collection and (b) the archiving of digital material as required under the Legal Deposits Libraries Act 2003. [175968] Estelle Morris: DCMS recognises the key storage needs of the British Library, and in SR 2002 set aside an extra amount of capital (£3 million in 2004-05 and £8 million in 2005-06) to help the British Library address this. The Department is aware of the British Library's bid for further resources to accelerate the programme of newspaper microfilm surrogate production and to manage digital materials. This is being considered as part of the 2004 Spending Review. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 allows for the possibility of archiving digital material; the precise manner in which this is done will be dependent on regulations which will be brought forward incrementally after consideration by an Advisory Panel.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 175968; 421 c1733W
Session: 2003-04
Subjects: Conservation Archives Digital technology Finance Libraries Newspaper press Microforms Storage British Library Legal deposit
Legislation: Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk