Amazon stumps up for British Library online catalogue

NEWS The British Library has enlisted the help of Amazon.co.uk - the UK arm of the US Internet bookseller - to finance its online catalogue. Amazon.co.uk banner ads will dominate the search facility on the online service - called Opac97 - which provides free public access to most of the library's London and Boston Spa collections. The estimated 100,000 users of the library's online facility will also be able to link to Amazon's commercial catalogue, which includes around 300,000 titles. John Lowery, who is responsible for online marketing at the British Library, said Amazon's backing was needed to support the running costs of the catalogue. Lowery added that the scheme is so costly because the catalogue is hosted by a company called Access Resources. "We're seriously considering bringing it in-house to save money," he said. Lowery said there has been no negative feedback from catalogue users about the advertising. "We don't see it as a problem because the users don't seem to mind," he explained.