The ultimate toy library? The Department of Exhibits and Firearms of the Imperial War Museum offers a loan service to schools, a mind‐boggling prospect for such as my older grandson who spends his Saturday mornings back at his school fighting virtual battles with models. That is the kind of nugget one picks up from this directory: indeed, that I have been picking up throughout my career as it seems always to have been around and one I used pretty constantly. This is the 34th edition, but since I seem to recall periods when we seemed to be waiting a long time for a new edition then it has indeed been around a long time.
That also attests to its value. More or less from the start it seemed to hit the right note of combining a judicious selection of specialist libraries with enough detail about many of them to help identify the most likely source of an elusive document or piece of sometimes recondite information. In the intervening years its scope has expanded into a wider range of specialist bodies. I recall that in its early days it concentrated heavily on government department libraries, many of them now privatised and many also gone for ever: where now the glories of the Royal Aircraft Establishment? Even those that survive seem often to have lost such titles redolent of the past and become anodyne almost anonymous shadows of their former selves. That may be how it seems, but for quite a few we can still be thankful that once extensive libraries have become even more extensive, although between electronic information and Freedom of Information there must be concerns about what will be preserved of information currently being generated.
One of the many virtues of this directory is that we can still gauge, or at least guess, such matters from the information it gives us: basic directory information of course (including Web site addresses), but names of the librarian (or whatever weird and wonderful titles we now glory in), description of stock and services and details of availability (no walk‐in service from the National Eczema Society, a helpline from the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors or outside enquiries only under special circumstances to the Royal Ordnance Library, for example). That kind of detail is the type of time saving information many of us have come to value over the years. Arranged alphabetically by name of organization (with a few cross‐references in the main sequence) the text is supplemented by a largely superfluous name index, and an invaluable subject index: the former index largely repeats the names in the main sequence, the latter is thorough, accurate and clear.
Add all that to an increased coverage of almost 600 organizations across the UK and the value increases commensurately: North to the Scottish Executive Library and Information Service, North West to the Tynwald Library or West again to the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland (I enjoyed a fascinating visit to the Ulster Folk Museum during a recent trip to Belfast). The coverage is broad and deep and does not aim to be exhaustive. “The main emphasis is on libraries and information services within government departments and similar agencies … (and) includes other selected organisations whose collections are relevant to subjects which may be of interest to government bodies or others with similar information needs”.
That encapsulates this pretty well unique and quite invaluable directory. You have probably been using it for years and know its worth, so that purchase of the new edition will be pretty well automatic. If you (or your inter‐library loan/information staff) have not come across it before, then I suggest you consider its immediate purchase. It belongs in any UK information service where it will remain an invaluable source and guide.
