An overview of British Library automation at St. Pancras Available to Purchase

The new British Library building is being constructed next to St. Pancras railway station in London. The building itself is being constructed for the Department of National Heritage by PSA Projects, their Management Contractors, Laing Management, and a large number of sub‐contractors. By contrast the automation supporting the services in the new building is being managed directly by the British Library. This paper gives an outline of these computer systems and the services that they provide. It concentrates more on what the systems do rather than the technology by which they achieve their results. The main computer systems supporting reader services are readers' admissions, the online catalogue and automatic book request.