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.

    73/340 (page 55)
    related to the nation’s economic wellbeing, it will probably continue to be impracticable to provide comprehensive coverage or so elaborate a range of information services. 230. These unpalatable conclusions make it essential for libraries and information services of all types and in all subjects to work as efficiently as possible, in order that the best possible use of available resources is achieved, and it is particularly important that the services on which expenditure is greatest should achieve the maximum effectiveness at the minimum cost. This will obviously require close co-ordination of libraries and information services and the most effective management of services of all types. 231. Except in sharing a common aim to collect and make available informa- tion for which an existing or potential demand has been demonstrated, the many different library and information services do not at present form a well- — ordered pattern of complementary and co-operating parts. Some units are large and have wide and deep coverage, but many more are very small, serving highly specialised needs. Some are supported entirely from private sources, others publicly financed and administered, and many more assisted in a variety of ways and to differing degrees from public funds, whilst still retaining their indepen- dent administration. With such a diversity of aims and services, unified administration is neither possible nor desirable but it is unfortunate that, with a few notable exceptions, there is little machinery for assisting the co-ordination of even national facilities in closely related subject areas, for avoiding wasteful duplication of effort, for ensuring adequate coverage of material and biblio- graphic services, and generally for making the best use of available resources of all kinds. Similarly, the lack of a national policy, relating the country’s information needs to other national requirements has prevented the nation’s | library services from developing in accordance with a coherent and compre- hensively considered plan. 232. Although the national library institutions are intended to complement other types of library by providing services which for economic or administrative reasons cannot be justified on a regional or local scale, there is remarkably little formal co-operation between the national and other libraries to identify users’ needs and to co-ordinate activities. On the other hand, no responsibilities have been placed on the national institutions to foster co-operation between libraries, to encourage the universal acceptance of standards, or to stimulate interest and research in new developments. Even amongst the national institutions them- selves, the variety of their administrative arrangements is not conducive to co-operation (Figure 8, page 56). Each institution enjoys either complete or a very considerable degree of independence from the others and from the other types of information service which it compliments. Where administrative links do occur, they have, usually, existed for a very considerable time and it is probably fortuitous if they continue to be appropriate to modern, rapidly changing conditions. There is, for instance, no formal machinery for consultation to prevent any unnecessary duplication of stock between the NRLSI and the NLLST, to link the NCL with the NLLST in subject areas where both have responsibilities, or to ensure that the bibliographic requirements of the BNB, the BML and NCL are co-ordinated to the advantage of all.