NATIONAL REFERENCE LIBRARY OF SCIENCE AND INVENTION
| Pages | 1-2 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026288 |
| Published date | 01 January 1961 |
| Date | 01 January 1961 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THE
Journal of Documentation
VOLUME
17
NUMBER
1
MARCH
1961
NATIONAL REFERENCE LIBRARY
OF
SCIENCE
AND
INVENTION
Extract from Hansard
(House
of
Lords),
Tuesday
31st
May 1960
(Columns
108-109),
2.45
p.m.
VISCOUNT DE L'ISLE:
My Lords,
I
beg leave
to
ask the Question which stands in my
name
on
the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask
Her
Majesty's Government whether
any
progress has been made with
regard
to
the proposed National Reference Library of Science and Invention.
THE
LORD
PRIVY SEAL AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE
(Viscount Hailsham): My Lords,
as
I
told the House in reply to
a
Question on July 30th 1958,
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.
I
am glad to be able
to
tell the
House that the terms of a lease of the site are now being settled between the Minis-
try of Works and the London County Council, and that it
is
hoped to start building
in the spring
of
1963,
with
a
view
to
completion
by
the end
of
1965.
As
I
said on July 30th 1958, 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. Scientific publications
at
present
in the
British Museum Library will be
in-
corporated in the new library. Care will of course be taken to safeguard the interests
and convenience of those who use the present Patent Office Library, and they will
be represented
on an
advisory committee
to be set up
when
the
new library
is
brought into operation.
VISCOUNT
DE
L'ISLE:
My
Lords,
is the
noble Viscount aware that
Her
Majesty's
Government's decision of policy, to form the National Reference Library of Science
and Invention as part of the British Museum Library, is warmly welcomed
by
the
Trustees of the British Museum; for it will in due course make available to students
and researchers the existing scientific resources of both the Patent Office Library and
of the British Museum Scientific Collections
in a
compendious way, and with the
minimum
of
duplication
in
the future.
VISCOUNT HAILSHAM:
I
am grateful
to
my noble and gallant friend
for
saying that.
It was thought that
it
would be useful to publish some papers on this sub-
ject from different points of view. Our contributors are: E. M. Nicholson,
C.B.
(Director-General of The Nature Conservancy and Chairman
of
the
1
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