YORK resident Caroline Brazier has joined the British Library as its first head of collection acquisition and description.

Caroline joins from the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, where she was keeper, collection management, responsible for the acquisition and processing of all modern collections by legal deposit and purchase.

Her duties at the British Library will be to oversee a central acquisition and cataloguing department with a long-term strategy of achieving a better integration between acquisition and cataloguing functions and to lead the library's corporate strategy for facilitating access to its collections and catalogues.

Caroline also has responsibility for the National Bibliography, a collection of bibliographic products providing a record of the nation's publishing output and aiding libraries and book buyers in the selection, acquisition and cataloguing of United Kingdom and Irish publications.

Additionally, she will provide a central point of expertise in bibliographic standards and metadata and act as a focus of leadership and communication for the national library network. In her post Caroline will lead and manage a staff of 250.

Caroline said: "It is a privilege to work at the British Library in this new post at such an exciting time in the library's development.

"I want to ensure that the quality of access to information resources is as rich in the digital environment as it has been in print.

"Having many years experience of management in the academic library environment, I look forward to using this experience to turn our vision for the future into reality."

Clive Field, director, scholarship and collections, the British Library, said: "I welcome Caroline to the library.

"We face a huge challenge to ensure that our customers have the same ease of access to information about our collections in the digital age as in the past, and the experience she brings will ensure that this formidable task is achieved."

Updated: 12:38 Monday, October 28, 2002