Abstract
THE thirty-second annual report of the executive committee of the National Central Library, covering the year ending February 29, 1948, again refers to a considerable increase in the services of the Library to all the categories of libraries with which it is in co-operation. Issues from or through the Library during the year reached 84,889, an increase of 28·6 per cent on the previous year ; of these, 8,655 were to university libraries, as against 6,073 in 1946-47, and 7,823 to the libraries of Government departments, research and industrial organisations, etc. Issues from the Scottish Central Library for Students increased from 13,690 to 15,547, and from the Irish Central Library for Students from 12,893 to 13,082. Twelve further special libraries have been added to the group of "Outlier Libraries", which now numbers 189, and 15,023 books were lent by these libraries during the year, as against 11,289 in the previous year. There are now 589 libraries co-operating in the regional systems and in the London borough libraries interlending system, and 142,832 books were lent by these libraries to other libraries in their own system during the year, as against 120,992 in 1946-47. Loans to foreign libraries during the year increased to 325, and 82 books were borrowed by British libraries from foreign sources. The Bureau of American Bibliography continues to demonstrate its value as the main source of information about American books and periodicals, and 123,270 further entries were made during the year in the main catalogues of the National Central Library, in Wales and in Scotland. Steady progress is now being made with the Union Catalogue of Russian Books and Periodicals, and the Library has also added to its activities that of a National Book Centre to co-ordinate the interchange and distribution of otherwise ‘unwanted' publications. The report stresses the serious position caused by the continued shortage in book prodiiction, and records some increase in staff and a start on preventive repairs on the devastated portionf the building at Malet Place, London.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The National Central Library. Nature 163, 126–127 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163126d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163126d0