Independent Television Commission (ITC) Collection
Introduction
In early 2001, the Independent Television Commission announced that it was intending to close its Library, and invited tenders from organisations wishing to take over the Library's collections. This was a competitive process, in which the bfi submitted a bid, as did a number of other organizations
In December 2001 the ITC named the bfi as the successful bidder. As a result, the bfi and the ITC entered into a formal agreement whereby the bfi would take over the ITC Library collections.
The bfi took possession of the ITC Library after it closed to the public in December 2002. The ITC ceased to exist shortly afterwards, with its assimilation into the new regulatory body, OFCOM. Our contact at the ITC Library, Jan Kacperek, also transferred to OFCOM and has remained our contact there.
Space
At this point, it was the intention that the bfi National Library would relocate to the South Bank, into larger accommodation (the currently empty space formerly occupied by the Museum of the Moving Image) during 2003. However, this did not happen, and these plans were finally abandoned in early 2004, so all measures to accommodate the materials acquired from the ITC have had to be taken utilising our existing space.
Core collections
The books, journals, pamphlets, audience research reports and microfiche materials have been integrated into our own collections, catalogued accordingly and are now available to all users.
Special Collections
The papers of Associated Rediffusion Television were included. These have been assimilated into our own Special Collections, catalogued accordingly and are now fully available.
Duplicate materials
As part of processing the ITC collection, a substantial proportion of materials was identified that duplicated our existing collection. This had been anticipated (although the proportion was higher than originally estimated), and we had agreed with the ITC that they would be donated to a Library outside of London. The majority of these duplicate materials were donated to, and transferred to, the Open University Library at Milton Keynes in February 2004. A small proportion has been retained as second copies, or used as appropriate, to replace copies in poor condition.
Out-of-scope materials
We had originally recognised that some of the ITC collections were out of our normal scope (primarily material relating to radio broadcasting, information systems etc), but we had agreed to add this material to our stock. However, given the space constraints caused by the decision not to relocate the Library, it was subsequently agreed with our contact at OFCOM that we could donate these out-of-scope materials to another Library, provided that it was in London. In fact, OFCOM itself reclaimed a small proportion of the material, and the remainder was donated to the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the LSE in early 2005.
Digitisation
The ITC collections included a very large quantity of newspaper cuttings. This material has been digitised, and will be available to Library users as scanned images. Some additional equipment has been acquired to facilitate this access. The Library regulations associated with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 allow us to copy these materials for preservation purposes, but we would be in breach of the Act if we donated the paper originals to another library, so these have been discarded.
Services
One of ITC's concerns was that there should be as little disruption to services as possible for the former users of the ITC Library. Providing a good service to these users was a high priority for us during the transitional period, and we now expect to offer them the same high quality service as any other user. We also agreed to provide
free access for regular users of the ITC Library including ex-IBA and ex-ITC employees (based on an agreed list). This arrangement will be reviewed in the future.
Access for OFCOM staff
We will provide free access to the Reading Room to OFCOM employees, on presentation of a staff pass, and the OFCOMInformation Centre has a free membership, on behalf of OFCOM employees, of our subscription Information Service. This can include a free document delivery service, of copies of articles from periodicals and press cuttings, although this has not been used at the time of writing.
Promotion of the new merged library service :
We have promoted the new collections, and provided regularly updated information about them, consistently through the last 2 years, via the bfi website.
Upkeep of the collection
The agreement with the ITC included a general provision that: "The bfi will have sole responsibility for keeping the Collection well-updated with materials analogous to those in the Collection and for ensuring the aims for the Collection set out in the Invitation to Apply and the bfi's Application for the Collection are fulfilled." This responsibility is being fulfilled, and will be fulfilled, within the constraints of the budgets of the bfi National Library.
Conclusion
While the major change in circumstances regarding accommodation has changed how we have had to set about the project, the assimilation of the ITC collections into the bfi National Library is now effectively complete, and the services that use these collections are fully operational.
