A PUBLIC LIBRARY VIEWPOINT Available to Purchase

The National Library should be the last place to which a reader will go for books or information; in other words, the mass need should be met by local or special services and the national facilities reserved as suppliers of last resort. The Committee recognize this in defining their purpose as seeking to identify what is necessary at national level ‘to supplement the services of the public, university, and special libraries, and of the existing information services’. This approach necessarily involves an accurate assessment of the specified services, since any misconceptions about them would invalidate the conclusions on what is needed to supplement them and render irrelevant any recommendations on how to provide it.