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Preserving Knowledge, Powering the Future: A Conversation with Patrick Fleming, Business Director, Digitization at Ninestars

Published: 10 Sep 2025

Over the last few months at Ninestars, Patrick Fleming has been bringing his deep expertise in archives, publishing, and digital transformation to shape our digitization practice. A former British Library director, award-winning journalist, CEO, and consultant, Patrick has spent his career at the intersection of culture, media, and technology. His experience leading transformational programs, from the British Newspaper Archive to large-scale library development initiatives, now informs how Ninestars approaches digitization in the age of AI.

We sat down with Patrick to talk about how digitization is changing libraries, archives, and the very way we think about access to knowledge.

You’ve worked extensively with libraries and archives over the years. Tell us a little about the transformative shift you’ve witnessed in the move from physical to digital collections.

Technology and innovation has radically transformed library and archive collections. With AI we are entering the next stage of digital innovation.

Digitisation transforms archives and libraries by enhancing access to collections, ensuring preservation of fragile Items, and enabling digital preservation of born-digital materials.

I have been at the heart of this digital transformation at the British Library. The Library’s newspaper collection, possibly the greatest in the world. grows as a paper collection every day due to legal deposit. Enshrined In legislation legal deposit forces the Library to collect the hard copies of every published newspaper In the UK. Only 2% of the collection of over 180 kilometres of content was digitised when the Library introduced its transformative journey to store, preserve and give access to its newspaper collection.

The game changer for the Library was to find a partner who would provide the innovation required to digitise out of copyright newspapers. DC Thomson won a procurement to start the process and the British Newspaper Archive today has 95 million pages and continues to grow.

Has there been a huge change in how people use libraries today compared to when you started?

Libraries and digitisation specialists like Ninestars continue to evolve internationally. Digitisation has transformed researcher behaviour by providing instant access to vast amounts of material remotely, changing research from physical exploration to online key word searching and data analysis. This shift enables large research questions, facilitates interdisciplinary approaches and poses challenges to the nature of libraries.

Researchers no longer sift through physical documents but rather read materials on screen. Powerful search facilities allow researchers to quickly locate information by searching for keywords across millions of documents. It was painstaking but often failed to capture nuance. A query like “climate change as reported In newspapers before 1988” could return thousands of results, not all of them relevant, now with AI driven digital archives the experiences changes completely. AI models understand context, semantics and intent, instead of matching words, they return answers. They summarise, highlight connections across decades and even suggest related themes. AI In digital libraries adds context, speed, and intelligence. Instead of static repositories, archives become dynamic, exploratory ecosystems as Ninestars are proving with best in-class digitisation transformations. Digitisation has fuelled the growth of digital humanities, creating new Interdisciplinary programs and fostering collaboration between researchers and archives.

How has digitisation changed the role of a librarian? What parts of the job have become easier, and which parts more complex?

Digitisation has transformed the librarians role from gatekeeper of physical collections to facilitator of digital access, shifting focus from preservation to curation and requiring new skills in technology, project management, and Information literacy. Librarians now manage digital resources, develop information literacy programs, teach users advanced search strategies and curate online content. They have become essential educators and technology experts In the digital age.

At Ninestars, we talk about preserving knowledge while making it intelligent and accessible. From your experience, what’s the biggest opportunity and challenges for organizations in embracing deep tech like AI?

AI presents huge opportunities for libraries to automate repetitive tasks, enhance user experience through personalised recommendations and Improved search, support collection development with data analysis, facilitate research with data management and text mining tools and relate dynamic content. Libraries can leverage AI to streamline workflows, optimise resources allocation, and offer accessible services like translation.

What’s one misconception about libraries that you wish more people understood?

Common misconceptions about libraries include:

They’re just for books. In reality, libraries also offer technology, music, programs, and services.
They’re always silent. Many function as vibrant community hubs with designated quiet zones.
Librarians just read all day. In fact, they manage diverse services, collections, and complex databases.
Libraries are irrelevant. On the contrary, they provide vital access to expensive databases, reliable internet, and digital literacy support.

Libraries today are dynamic community centers and social anchors, offering far more than print media. They provide learning opportunities, resources, and a safe haven for people of all ages.

What are some of the biggest trends and innovations you see for libraries on the horizon?

AI Is on every Librarian’s lips. Its full scope and International acceptance is still unknown. AI offers Insights for medicine, strategic planning and a host of industry wide uses.

And since we are talking about libraries and archives, is there a book that had a profound impact on you growing up?

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf had enormous Impact on me.

At Ninestars, Patrick’s experience reinforces our belief that preserving knowledge is only half the story. The real transformation lies in making it intelligent, accessible, and impactful for generations to come.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the future of digitization. Let’s talk at contactus@ninestars.in