It has hired digital consultancy, Circus Street, to review its current site for potential to work with the commercial sector. Currently, it is exploring sponsored webinars, which would take online training sessions from its Business and Intellectual Property Centre to a wider audience. The site already has a developed direct consumer model, selling reports and documents to the public via an online shop..
Mat Pfleger, head of sales and marketing, The British Library, said: “We’re exploring what we can do with e-commerce sections and the whole site to make it pay its way. Because we’re a public body we have to take care with the site, but we won’t close any doors.” He added that the Library is looking at ‘discrete’ areas of the site where advertising would be ‘appropriate’.
Jeremy Hill, Circus Street, said: “It wouldn’t work to stick on banners and buttons and get people to trade off those. We’re getting market feedback to identify the best areas for innovative commercial opportunities.”
The site, , attracts more than one million users each month.
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