“This short publication lays out the key strategic priorities for the British Library on its journey to its 50th anniversary and beyond, and sets them in a framework of six purposes which explain, as simply and clearly as we can, the enduring ways in which the public funding we receive helps to deliver tangible public value – in custodianship, research, business, culture, learning and international partnership. Even more perhaps than Growing Knowledge, what follows is an ambitious prospectus for growth and continued development, driven by a vision of the British Library in 2023 as the most open, creative and innovative institution of its kind in the world. These are times of historic disruption in the whole global system of information and publication, and it seems right that the great knowledge institutions – with their historic remit to think and act with a view far into the future – should play a full part in shaping the changes that lie ahead…First, it is now clear that we are living through a revolution in the creation, analysis and exploitation of data in all its forms, from the vast scientific and social datasets typically badged as ‘big data’ to the innovations already being derived from analysing digitised cultural content in the humanities. We are only just beginning to appreciate the distinctive and dynamic roles that libraries have to play in this revolution: as curators of vast and rapidly growing collections of digitised historic items and born-digital content; as creators and analysers of new datasets; as experts in setting standards, improving data and enabling links in a complex digital landscape; and as centres for cross-disciplinary working and business innovation.”