British Library Integrated Catalogue Links to Amazon

Today I learnt that the British Library’s Integrated Catalogue now includes links to Amazon.co.uk. As well as the usual bibliographic details, each catalogue entry has a field called “This item in Amazon.co.uk” which redirects the user to the page on Amazon where they can buy the book. A British Library spokesperson said that they were providing links to Amazon (on a trial basis) so that users would be able to access a book if it wasn’t available in the BL’s reading rooms.

According to an article on the Bookseller.com, booksellers are, unsurprisingly, unhappy about this. James Daunt (Waterstones) has criticized the BL for driving the public away from public libraries and high street bookshops. Johnny de Falbe (Sandoe) commented:

"The British Library, a public institution, should not be offering this link to Amazon, which is not (last I heard) a public institution. And if the British Library, of all people, are not supporting British bookshops, and positively steering business away from independents, then why should anyone else have any faith, or interest, in independents?"*

The spokesperson explained that the links were to Amazon (rather than another bookseller) because the links come built-in to their library software supplied by ExLibris, and that the British Library wasn’t making any money out of the arrangement.

Since reading the article on the Bookseller website, I thought I'd take a look at the British Library Integrated Catalogue myself. However I have been unable to find a record which has a link to Amazon.co.uk so either I am doing something wrong, or BL has removed the links.

*The Bookseller article:

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/british-library-attacked-amazon-link.html

British Library’s Integrated Catalogue:

http://catalogue.bl.uk/

I read about this in CILIP’s Weekly Information World.

CILIP

http://www.cilip.org.uk/