Diablog

The BBC archive is not just any archive. The broadcaster has shaped the UK's cultural heritage for more than 80 years, so it contains important snapshots of the nation's history. And this rich past will soon begin to be accessible online.

According to the director of BBC Vision, Jana Bennett, there are plans to launch an online catalogue of every TV and radio show the corporation has broadcasted by Christmas 2010. The BBC then plans to gradually make this material available to the public, with a deadline for digitising as many shows as possible - rights and other issues permitting - by the BBC's 100th anniversary in 2022.

That is going to be a lot of work. The BBC's archives occupy 4.5 miles of shelves - as shown in this gallery), with 2.5m hours of film and video, 6m photographs, 4.5m pieces of sheet music, 5 miles of documents about programmes, staff, finance, correspondence and 200,000 word pronunciations. They are stored in 26 sites all over the UK.