The BFI and the British Library have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding, with the objective of increasing public, professional and research access to audio-visual and broadcast content and integrating it with other knowledge collections.

Signed by BFI Director, Amanda Nevill and British Library CEO, Dame Lynne Brindley, the MOU outlines key areas for joint strategic thinking, including public access, rights management and digitisation.

Managed by a joint steering committee, this new partnership will look at ways the UK's leading custodians of the UK's audio-visual and broadcast heritage can meet the challenges of collecting, preserving and providing contemporary and long-term access to our unique collections in the digital age, for the benefit of researchers and the wider public.

We aim to explore areas including: collecting policies; contributing to intellectual property and copyright discussions; metadata and resource discovery; how new digital technologies and enhanced physical spaces can improve access to film and television content; digital and paper conservation; exhibitions and public programmes; and how we can offer services for the creative industries. More specific details will be developed at a strategic summit in early spring.

Amanda Nevill, Director of the BFI, said:

"We are delighted to be developing this key partnership with one of the world-leading custodians of our UK heritage. Partnerships such as this are crucial as we explore new ways to increase access to our collections across a range of different media and platforms in the digital economy and ensure we maximise our combined knowledge, expertise and resources."

Dame Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library, said:

"As stated in the Library's 2020 Vision, providing increased access to broadcast and audio-visual collections is one of our primary goals. This innovative partnership follows on from our MOU with the BBC and demonstrates our commitment to working with other major national institutions for the benefit of researchers."

We are already collaborating with the British Library as members of the UK Sound & Vision Collections group convened by the BFI and looking at national audio-visual collection policy. A letter from the group announcing its formation was recently sent to Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries. Other group members comprise the BBC, the National Archives, the Imperial War Museum, the National Media Museum, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and National Museums Northern Ireland.

The MOU signed by both parties is non-exclusive. We both intend that this partnership will evolve as a model of best practice and in time we will seek the opportunity to work with other public archives throughout the UK to expand the project. It complements the MOUs signed between the BBC and BFI in 2009 and between the BBC and the British Library in 2009.