THE NATIONAL LIBRARY AS THE BASIS OF A NATIONAL LIBRARY
| Pages | 244-247 |
| Date | 01 April 1965 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026371 |
| Published date | 01 April 1965 |
| Author | FRANK FRANCIS |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY AS THE BASIS
OF A NATIONAL LIBRARY
SIR FRANK FRANCIS
Director, British Museum
ONE OF THE advantages
of Festschriften
according to
a
recent correspond-
ent in the Times
Literary Supplement is
that 'they help
us
to find out what the
middle-aged are thinking'. This welcome 'Festschrift
number'
of the Journal
of
Documentation
for Miss Barbara Kyle provides me at any rate with an
opportunity to explore further the theme which I touched on in my Presi-
dential Address to the Library Association at Harrogate* and which has
most recently been taken up in a long leading article in Nature† entitled
'The plight of library services in Britain'. This theme
is
the evident need at
the present time, in this country, for the development of a national library
service in which the responsibilities for different kinds of library activities
can be properly allocated,
and
adequately financed. There can be no doubt
that the need
is
deeply felt for strong, informed central direction or leader-
ship.
The lack of it
has
led to the proliferation of committees and groups all
dabbling in the study of information and documentation problems, many
of them duplicating work which is being done elsewhere. This wasteful
proliferation has, however, the valuable result of bringing to a head the
urgency of the need for action. I am sure that this strong central direction
and leadership can only come from those engaged in the actual provision of
a national library service.
However pessimistic such articles as that from
Nature
which I have just
mentioned seem to
be,
I do not think there
is
really any
cause
for pessimism.
This country
has
great library resources and in its national library it posses-
ses a highly developed organization which can be adapted and is adapting
itself to the library and documentation requirements of the present day.
Surely the actual resources and the enormous potentialities of our national
library, the British Museum, provide without question the finest possible
base for our national library planning.
It is not surprising that in scientific, technological, and industrial circles,
confidence in this, as in the national libraries in other countries, has been
wanting. They have indeed been slow, in many cases, to adapt themselves
*
Library Association
Record,
vol. 67, no.
6,
June 1965.
†
Nature,
vol. 207, no.
5003,
18 September 1965.
244
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