THE BRITISH LIBRARY: A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN'S VIEW Available to Purchase

Apart from its unfortunate sharing of initials with another nationalized organization whose record is much less distinguished, though much more familiar to the general public, the name of the British Library (BL) is not the least interesting aspect of its general image. The words suggest to many a single institution, a monolithic national library, but where or what is it? On the other hand, if we were to speak of the British Library Service, further misunderstandings arise, because to many this might mean the whole system of publicly funded libraries. The possibilities of ambiguity are well illustrated in the title of the Fourth Report from the Education, Science and Arts Committee of the House of Commons, Information storage and retrieval in the British Library service.