ME and Ophelia

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The British Library holds 51 million printed journals:
Everything published in the UK since 1911

Last October, I blogged about a new law, proposed in a Private Member's Bill, that allows the British Library to store web pages and emails in its archive. Under this new law, future mediums will also be able to be stored as they are developed.

The library had pushed for electronic items to be included because of the rise in web-based publishing. "This new legislation will now mean that a vital part of the nation's published heritage will be safe," said MP Chris Mole, who supported the move.

The archive will comprise selective "harvesting" from the 2.9 million sites that have "uk" suffixes. The new publishing formats - which also include CD-Roms - will join these archives, and be available for future study.

The British Library already holds 51 million printed journals. It is one of six legal deposit archives which hold a copy of everything published in the UK since 1911. Other archives are held at the national libraries of Scotland and Wales and libraries at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Trinity, Dublin.