Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to assist the Imperial War Museum in continuing to provide its library services to meet the extra demand during the commemorations of the First World War.

DCMS continues to work closely and positively with IWM. The IWM remain fully committed to maintaining IWMs presence in Manchester, London and Cambridgeshire. The IWM are considering changes to how core collections including books are accessed at IWM London, and a programme of digitisation of these core collections is in train so that those across the UK and further afield who are not able to visit the museum sites in person, can engage with IWMs subject matter.

All accessioned collection items, and some (non-accessioned) books, ephemera, etc. will remain at or under the museum’s direct management and will continue to be accessible by appointment. However, IWM is also looking at a number of options, including possible transfer to other institutions for the materials currently held in IWMs library that are not part of its core (accessioned) collection, so that these might still be accessible to the public.