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| Date | 01 January 1961 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026292 |
| Pages | 34-39 |
| Published date | 01 January 1961 |
| Author | A.H. CHAPLIN |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
4
A. H. CHAPLIN,
B.A.
Keeper in the Department of Printed Books, British Museum
THE PROGRESS of scientific research and technological development in
this country requires the efficient organization of free access to all the rele-
vant publicly available information; one of the principal means of serving
this end should be the formation of a National Reference Library of Science
and Invention; this library should incorporate a comprehensive collection
of the currently valid scientific and technical literature of the world, ar-
ranged on the principle of open
access
and associated with an efficient biblio-
graphical information
service.
This article does not inquire into the validity
of these propositions, the grounds for which are discussed elsewhere, but
treats them as axiomatic. Its purpose is to consider the implications of the
proposed association of the projected reference library with the British
Museum.
The announcement made by the Minister for Science on 31 May 1960
included the following words:
'... it
is
proposed to house the National Reference Library of Science and Invention
in a new Patent Office building which is to be erected on the South Bank... The
Library will be built up and expanded from the existing Patent Office Library. It
has now been decided that it would be in the long-term interest of learning, and of
the completeness of the national collections of scientific literature, for the National
Reference Library of Science and Invention to be formed as part of the British
Museum Library, although housed as a separate unit.'
The effect of this decision will be to unite two institutions which, though
differing widely in character and traditions, have resources and potentiali-
ties
which
are
not conflicting but complementary. It offers to both together
an opportunity of development along
lines
which, in each
case,
are
a
natural-
extension of present functions.
The character of the Patent Office Library, and the developments which
can be based on it, are described by
its
librarian in another
article.
Here it is
sufficient to say that, apart from
its
responsibilities to the Patent Office
itself,
this
library already holds
a
unique position among State-supported libraries
as a provider of scientific and technical reference services, freely and with
the minimum of formalities, to the public at
large.
The proposed transfor-
mation will greatly increase its usefulness to the scientific world and to
industry, without depriving the Patent Office and the patent agents—who
are
now among
its
most regular clients—of the benefits they already receive
from it.
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