The British Library has signed a deal with IBM to save all its materials in a digital format that will be retrievable even if electronic formats change. The deal is expected to be worth up to pound;2 million over the next 10 years. Early NASA data has already been lost because the technology used to store it became outdated. Library chief executive Lnne Brindley said: “Today’s writers, working on disc rather than on paper, need to take care that their work does not perish alongside the equipment to read it. The library hopes to have its digital library system in place by 2002 so people can search for materials from its reading rooms and eventually on its website.”

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