Report of the National Libraries Committee.

  • Great Britain. National Libraries Committee.
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the National Libraries Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    48/340 (page 30)
    sample) indicates the value of the NLLST in supplementing the services provided by the scientific libraries in central London. Issues to universities in relation to the number of their academic staff show that a relatively high use of the library is made by the newer universities, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Exceptionally low use was made of the NLLST by Oxford and Cambridge universities, probably because of their own outstandingly good sources of scientific literature. (c) Types of material used 106. About nine tenths of all issues were serial publications, with books and reports making up the remainder. Over two thirds of the serial publications issued were in pure and applied science, about one sixth in medicine and about one twentieth in social science. Books and reports issues reflected a similar subject pattern. About half the items issued by the library were published in the last three years, nine tenths since 1950, and all but a twentieth since 1940. This pattern accurately follows that of the NRLSI and is markedly different from that of the SML. There was no significant difference between the distributions of date of publication for serials and for books. Among the specific categories of user, industrial organisations made a heavier than average demand for very recent material, but this was compensated by a relatively low demand for slightly older material. (d) Use of photographic services 107. The survey shows that photocopying issues amounted to about 6 per cent of the total sample. It is understood from the NLLST that the demand for photocopying has been constant at about this proportion of annual demand for the last five years, although the volume of photocopying, like that of the library’s other services, has increased rapidly (Figure 5, page 27). (e) Survey of unsatisfied loan requests 108. During the week commencing 17th July 1968, the NLLST carried out a survey of its unsatisfied loan requests. The survey revealed that 87 per cent of the accepted requests were met from the NLLST stock and a further 4 per cent by the SML and the BLPES. Thus, the unsatisfied requests, which amounted to 1,052, represented less than one tenth of the total. About three fifths of the unsatisfied requests were for serials, about three tenths for books and the remainder for conference reports. Over half the serial failures were items which the library would consider for purchase in its review of serial holdings, about one eighth were items on order, and over a quarter were items about which insufficient information was given to enable an order to be placed. Of the unsatisfied requests for books, about one third were on order and almost a half were insufficiently described to make ordering possible. Nine tenths of the unsatisfied requests for conference reports did not give sufficient information to enable orders to be placed.