BRITISH LIBRARY

That this House applauds the unique role played by the British Library in the UK's increasingly knowledge-based economy; notes that the Library receives over 1.6 million yearly visits to its 150 million items, including the Magna Carta and St Cuthbert's Gospel; celebrates the Library's digital collection of over 600 terabytes which serves over three million users every year; recognises the value of these resources to higher education and research at undergraduate, postgraduate and professional level; welcomes the Library's plans to expand its Boston Spa site in West Yorkshire for storing and managing collections that contributes to the knowledge economy in the North of England; praises the support that the British Library's UK Research Reserve has provided to universities, which has enabled them to deliver savings of £37 million over five years; further recognises that the British Library creates net economic value of £419 million for the UK; further notes that the British Library's business support services have already created 4,200 jobs nationwide; notes that the Library has made real-terms savings of 30 per cent to its budget, less than a third that of the Library of Congress, and less than three quarters that of France's national library; recognises that further cuts to the British Library's budget would undermine its economic contribution and damage its international status as one of the world's greatest libraries; and urges the Government to protect the funding of the British Library from further cuts.