Editing British Library (section)

==Historical background==
The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the ''[[List of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 1960–1979|British Library Act]] 1972''.<sup>[5]</sup> Prior to this, the national library was part of the [[British Museum]], which provided the bulk of the holdings of the new library, alongside smaller organisations which were folded in (such as the [[National Central Library (England and Wales)|National Central Library]], the [[National Lending Library for Science and Technology]] and the British National Bibliography).<sup>[5]</sup> In 1974 functions previously exercised by the Office for Scientific and Technical Information were taken over; in 1982 the [[India Office Library and Records]] and the HMSO Binderies became British Library responsibilities.<sup>[6]</sup> In 1983, the Library absorbed the [[National Sound Archive]], which holds many sound and video recordings, with over a million discs and thousands of tapes.<sup>[7]</sup>

The core of the Library's historical collections is based on a series of donations and acquisitions from the 18th century, known as the 'foundation collections'.<sup>[8]</sup> These include the books and manuscripts of [[Robert Bruce Cotton|Sir Robert Cotton]], [[Sir Hans Sloane]], [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer|Robert Harley]] and [[King George III]].<sup>[9]</sup>

[[Image:British Library.jpg|thumb|left|The British Library in [[Thorp Arch Trading Estate|Thorp Arch]], [[West Yorkshire]]]]
[[File:British Library + St Pancras 7527-31hug.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The British Library and [[St Pancras railway station|St Pancras]]]]

For many years its collections were dispersed in various buildings around [[central London]], in places such as [[Bloomsbury]] (within the British Museum), [[Chancery Lane tube station|Chancery Lane]], and [[Holborn]], with an [[Interlibrary loan|interlibrary lending]] centre at [[Boston Spa]], [[Wetherby]] in West Yorkshire (situated on Thorp Arch Trading Estate) and the newspaper library at [[Colindale]], north-west London.<sup>[5]</sup> Since 1997 the main collection has been housed in a single new building on [[Euston Road]] next to [[St. Pancras railway station]], although post-1800 newspapers are still held at Colindale, and the Document Supply Centre is in Yorkshire. The Library has a book storage depot in [[Woolwich]], south-east London. The new library was designed specially for the purpose by the architect [[Colin St. John Wilson]].<sup>[5]</sup> Facing Euston Road is a large piazza that includes pieces of [[public art]], such as large sculptures by [[Eduardo Paolozzi]] (a bronze statue based on [[William Blake]]'s study of [[Isaac Newton]]) and [[Antony Gormley]]. It is the largest public building constructed in the [[United Kingdom]] in the 20th century.<sup>[10]</sup><sup>[11]</sup>

In the middle of the building is a four-storey glass tower containing the [[King's Library]], with 65,000 printed volumes along with other pamphlets, manuscripts and maps collected by King George III between 1763 and 1820.<sup>[12]</sup> In December 2009 a new storage building at Thorp Arch, [[City of Leeds]], West Yorkshire was opened by [[Rosie Winterton]]. The new facility, costing £26 million, has a capacity for seven million items, stored in more than 140,000 [[Barcode|bar-coded]] containers, which are retrieved by robots,<sup>[13]</sup> from the 262&nbsp;kilometres of temperature and humidity-controlled storage space.<sup>[14]</sup>