 Let's begin sort of at the beginning. It's often said that this building was was hard won Not easy to achieve and of course that's true But the whole institution was also the result of intense debate a great Hard-fought battle for what kind of institution should get created that act of Parliament 1972 was the result of more decade and a half That really emerged from that great post-war Institution building period that gave us everything in succession from the National Health Service the Arts Council a third program open University the National Theatre and One thing the nation did not have which was a distinct national library But it was born in a very very particular spirit a Determination always to look at the future and this is a theme we'll come back to again It's the theme of the evening not just a commemorative library looking back at heritage but putting collections to work to generate new knowledge and That that sense of youthful forward-looking institution has been with us all the way through we checked which What was in the charts the day it finally opened for business in 19 and appropriately for the organization which is now home of the National Sound Archive And it was born into an extraordinary time of possibility and change within a couple of years These two companies had come into existence and rather like the British Library Nobody knew at the time what they would become and in a sense it was similar for this institution It was sort of almost Invisible and that was partly because it had not it was not so much homeless has had too many homes Of course one of them which is still with us is in the north of England very proudly still 500 staff Employed at Boston Spa in Yorkshire the dead's geographical center of the country the library at the center of the system and 43-acre estate little known to Londoners, but certainly known to everyone in Yorkshire But here in London even here The library had a plethora of locations at least half a dozen I'm sure I'm going to get corrected on this because I'm sure there was smaller collection somewhere That no one's told me about but of course it was centered Emotionally and headquarters and practically at birth in the wonderful British Museum And I know we have colleagues from that institution here tonight and that home Presented itself with opportunities and and challenges It was so deep-rooted that the task of creating something new was all the more difficult for everyone involved and of course the task of synthesis fell to Sandy Wilson Colin singed Wilson and his team and Collaborators some of whom are here tonight. I don't know if MJ is here but many others who were involved in that project are still close friends of this Institution and truly it has to go down in history as one of the most challenging and brilliantly Executed works of synthesis of problem-solving in architectural history