BBTI was founded in 1983 by Peter C. G. Isaac, Professor Emeritus of Civil and Public Health Engineering, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Originally supported by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Sir James Knott Charitable Trust, the project later received financial assistance from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust.

Sadly, Professor Isaac died in June 2002, shortly after seeing the project established at Birmingham. Peter Isaac was a highly respected historian of the British provincial book trade and a former President of the Bibliographical Society. He was also the founding editor of Quadrat, a periodical bulletin of research in progress on the British book trade. Quadrat is now edited by Catherine Armstrong..

The three-year project hosted at the University of Birmingham was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and ended on 31 March 2005.