The British Library has embarked upon “ambitious” plans to open a branch in Leeds as part of a drive to expand the organisation’s activities in the north of England.

Board meeting minutes obtained by the Guardian reveal the library has been in discussions with Leeds city council about potential locations for a facility referred to as British Library North.

Plans for a “significant investment” in the city are intended to build on Leeds 2023, a five-year cultural investment programme being led by the city council that will culminate in a year-long celebration of the arts.

The Leeds 2023 initiative was launched after the city was forced to abandon its bid to become the European capital of culture. The UK was stripped of the right to host the title after the EU referendum.

According to the library’s meeting minutes, the Leeds city council, chief executive, Tom Riordan met the board in May 2018 to discuss the potential for collaboration on cultural initiatives. Riordan cited the high proportion of millennials in Leeds and board members noted “a great deal of alignment” between the aims of the two organisations.

Discussions subsequently took place between Riordan and Sir John Ritblat, a British Library board member and major donor to the institution, alongside other members of the executive team, regarding potential locations for a new outpost.

The proposals are being considered in parallel with a planned upgrade and expansion of the British Library’s reading rooms at Boston Spa in Leeds. In May last year the board agreed to use £250,000 from the library’s reserves to fund work on the Boston Spa Renewed project.

In November, the board agreed five strategic priorities up to 2023, which include “securing capital investment in Boston Spa Renewed and working with Leeds city council and other partners to develop plans and deliver the initial components of British Library North”.

Other priorities include the development of British Library Open, described as a “similar model to the BBC’s iPlayer”, intended to offer easier access to the library’s web content. Board members were said to be “especially supportive of the ambitious visions for British Library North and British Library Open”.

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“The board would have to balance the risks of the library overstretching itself and failing to achieve such huge and ambitious transformation, against the risks of slow decline and a failure to remain relevant and valued by researchers and other audiences if it did not grasp these challenges,” the minutes report.

A spokesman for the British Library said: “One of our strategic priorities is to substantially improve and expand our long-standing presence in Yorkshire. This is part of our wider role as a national library for the UK.

“The primary focus of our British Library North programme is to invest in the estate on our existing site at Boston Spa, near Wetherby, to expand archival-standard storage facilities for the collections under our custodianship, and to refurbish the staff areas, much of which is outdated.

“Alongside this, we will work with local partners, including Leeds city council, to deliver expanded culture and learning programming in the run up to the Leeds 2023 cultural festival – starting with this year’s Leeds digital festival. 2023 is our 50th anniversary so this will be an important milestone year for the library.

“We will also be exploring subsequent opportunities to embed our presence in the city after 2023, and we look forward to further discussions with partners in the coming months.”

Judith Blake, the leader of Leeds city council, said: “Leeds has ambitious plans for making the most of our cultural strengths as we work with partners towards 2023. We are delighted to have a strong relationship with the British Library, with their presence playing an important part in the Leeds cultural, digital and economic landscape, and we look forward to working with them in the years ahead, as one of a wide range of organisations who see the opportunities available here, from Channel 4 to Burberry.

“Part of our aim is for national cultural institutions to recognise the city as a base [from which] to increase access for people across the north to assets which might otherwise remain unseen or unavailable.”

In February this year the British Library signed an agreement with developers Stanhope and Mitsui Fudosan UK in relation to an extension of the library’s St Pancras site. The extension will house business and exhibition spaces and new headquarters for the Alan Turing Institute.