British Library to turbocharge small business support on the high street, growing Business & IP Centre network from 14 to over 100 libraries.
The British Library is growing its highly successful network of library-based Business & IP Centres (BIPCs) to over 100 regional and local libraries across England, including in Grimsby, Sunderland and a prison library in Birmingham.
Enabled by a major investment of £13million announced by the Chancellor last year, the expansion will equip dozens of regional and local libraries with Business & IP Centre spaces, resources and services by 2023, building on the British Library’s network of small business support already available in 14 city centre libraries across the UK.
The BIPC network has a notably strong track record of supporting people from all walks of life to start, protect and grow successful businesses. In just three years it has:
Supported the creation of over 12,000 new businesses
Led to the creation of over 7,800 new jobs
Generated an extra £78million GVA to the UK economy
Created businesses twice as likely to succeed beyond three years
Business & IP Centres can open up the path to entrepreneurship for anyone with an idea. Consistently, over half of those who use a BIPC to set up a business are women and a third are from under-represented ethnic backgrounds. More than triple the national averages for business ownership in the UK, this diverse user base speaks to the accessibility and community-based ethos of this library-based support. While each Centre is equipped with a core set of resources, such as up-to-date market research and business databases, they are brought to life by a tailored and highly individual programme of events, workshops and one-to-ones, delivered in collaboration with local business leaders, role model entrepreneurs and community partners.
This accessible support has been invaluable for small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a recent survey, almost a quarter of all BIPC users said that the service had helped them gain confidence and resilience to steer their business through the challenges of the pandemic. Over 3,600 business owners across the UK have attended events as part of Reset. Restart, an emergency online programme launched by the British Library last year to provide new skills and resilience to all SMEs affected.
This significant expansion begins as the British Library marks ten years since piloting the first Business & IP Centre outside London in 2011, at Newcastle City Library. In the past decade, BIPC Newcastle has:
Supported over 14,000 new and growing businesses
Safeguarded approx. 600 local jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic
This month sees the service rebrand as BIPC North East, expanding to local libraries in Berwick, Morpeth, Hexham, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland. Elsewhere in the North East, Tees Valley will open a new regional Centre at Stockton Central Library, with potential to extend across the Tees Valley to local libraries in Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Redcar.
Culture Minister, Caroline Dinenage, says: "It is brilliant that small businesses and entrepreneurs will now be able to access invaluable support and resources in more parts of the country than ever before. I'm delighted that, thanks to our £13 million investment in the British Library's Business & IP Centres, this important network is growing from strength to strength."
Liz Jolly, Chief Librarian at the British Library, says: “At their heart, libraries are trusted spaces with professional staff who have a mission to connect people with information. From Glasgow to Brighton, our BIPC Network harnesses the power of libraries, bringing in expertise from the local community to help people from all walks of life turn an idea into a successful business.
We’re delighted to mark this next chapter in the Network’s journey, growing from 14 to over 100 new regional and local Centres across England, with a longer term ambition to expand across the UK. Our mission is to put business support in every library, but we’re also learning lessons from the past year, by making sure more and more of our business and IP workshops, events and 1-1s are open to everyone online.”
Existing (in bold) and confirmed new Business & IP Centre locations by 2023*
*Please note that the full expansion includes, but is not limited to, the locations named below
Birmingham (Library of Birmingham)
Acocks Green
Handsworth
Mobile Library
Prison Library
South Yardley
Sutton Coldfield
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough (Cambridge Central Library)
Ely
Huntingdon
Peterborough
Wisbech
Devon (Exeter Library)
Barnstaple
Okehampton
Paignton
Seaton
Glasgow (Mitchell Library)
Greater Manchester (Manchester Central Library)
Blackpool
Bolton
Bury
Lancaster
Oldham
Salford
Stockport
Tameside
Trafford
Humber Partnership (Hull Central Library)
Bridlington
Beverley
Goole
Grimsby
Kent (Maidstone Library)
Deal
Whitstable
Sandwich
Leeds City Region (Leeds Central Library)
Bradford
Calderdale
Kirklees
Wakefield
Liverpool City Region (Liverpool Central Library)
Allerton
Birkenhead (Wirral)
Crosby
Huyton (Knowsley)
Spellow
St Helens
London (British Library) + workshops across ten London boroughs
Waltham Forest (Leytonstone Library)
Please note that this Centre is launching as a result of local authority investment, separately to the Treasury investment
Norfolk (Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library)
Cromer
Great Yarmouth
King's Lynn
Thetford
Wroxham
Wymondham
North East (Newcastle City Library)
Berwick
Hexham
Morpeth
North Tyneside
South Tyneside
Sunderland
Northamptonshire (Central Library)
Brixworth
Kettering
Towcester
Wellingborough
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Beeston
Bulwell Riverside
Mansfield
Sutton-in-Ashfield
Regional Centre to be part of new Nottingham Central Library, once open
Oxfordshire (Oxfordshire County Library)
Banbury
Bicester
Henley
Wantage
South Yorkshire (Sheffield Central Library)
Barnsley
Doncaster
Rotherham
Sheffield Crystal Peaks
Sussex (Jubilee Library, Brighton)
Crawley Library
Tees Valley (Stockton Central Library)
Worcestershire (The Hive)
Bromsgrove
Evesham
Kidderminster
Malvern
Redditch