REPROGRAPHICS AT THE BRITISH LIBRARY LENDING DIVISION

Over the last ten years the number and proportion of requests being satisfied by photocopying at the British Library Lending Division has increased greatly. There are two main methods, using Rank Xerox 1000 machines and Rank Xerox Copyflo machines respectively. The main disadvantage of both methods is the poor reproduction of half‐tones and to overcome this problem a Mitsubishi U‐bix II machine is also used. Duplicate microforms are normally made by the diazo method which is cheaper than the traditional silver halide method and which also results in a product which is more resistant to water and to scratching. The Lending Division also prefers microfiche to roll film because of the ease of duplication of the former. A hard copy enlargement service is also available from the Division but the demand is fairly small. The library also has a small offset litho unit. The proportion of material received in microform is increasing slowly, however there has been a steady change from roll microfilm to microfiche. Developments in automatic input of hard copy text into a computer may change existing publishing patterns but the economics of present methods make dramatic changes unlikely in the near future.