British Library sets sights on the East

Our time is done...

According to the British Library, academics in India and China will soon be generating the big ideas in science, technology and economics...

China and India - already braced to become two of the world's greatest economic powers - are now expected to become two of its most important academic powerhouses.

The British Library - renowned for collecting books, journals and artefacts from across the globe - is set to shift its focus from Western Europe towards China and India, to ensure Britons have access to the most important research.

Staff will outline the new strategy on Tuesday along with their predictions that the two countries could overtake the West as intellectual and cultural hotspots.

The library's greatest treasures are currently kept in the elegant exhibition room on the first floor: Jane Austen's desk, Mozart's scores, Shakespeare's first folio and Einstein's calculations.

Such glories marking Western thought from the past are set to be joined by work from the greatest thinkers of the 21st century - and, says the library, they are likely to come from the East.

Link: Guardian Unlimited Books.