Personal column

WHITHER OSTI? I ruminate, as this year ends and 1977 dawns. When the British Library was formed, and the incorporation of the then Office for Scientific & Technical Information into the BL's Research and Development Division was mooted, doubts were expressed whether the bl maw would foreclose on osti's independence of grant‐action, and, to still them, the secretary‐of‐state at the time gave an undertaking safeguarding that independence.