The master plan for the national repository of the British Library,at Boston Spa in West Yorkshire,derives from the library's urgent need for more space for its growing print collection.The 18-hectare campus,formerly a World War Ⅱ munitions factory,houses more than three-quarters of the library's collection of more than 170 million items.In the last 10 years,around 7 million physical items have been added to the library's archives,requiring about 8 km of new shelving annually.According to projections,the current storage facilities will be full by the end of the current decade.With a master plan for a more outward-facing campus,the project will increase the capacity and quality of storage for the national collection,create a better place for people to work,and vastly improve the long-term environmental sustainability of the site.There will be 2 buildings:a significant renovation and adaptation of the brutalist Urquhart Building,the first purpose-built building for the British Library,constructed in the 1970s,and a new fully automated,low-energy archive building that will support the expansion of the collection for decades to come.
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