British Union Catalogue of Periodicals

Abstract

AT the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux Conference held in November 1942, following a paper presented by Mr. Theodore Besterman "On a Proposed Union Catalogue of Periodicals", the Association was requested to consider the possibility of publishing a union catalogue of British and foreign periodical publications on all subjects and of all dates, the location of which is traced in a library in the British Isles. A committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Luxmoore Newcombe, librarian of the National Central Library, and including members of the Library Association the British Museum staff, the Joint Standing Committee on Library Co-operation and the Science Museum Library, satisfied itself that the project was practicable, and that the resulting Catalogue would prove an invalable bibliographical tool. It was estimated that the compilation of the preliminary check-list, prepared from existing union and other lists and catalogues, would take about five years and that this check-list, in itself, would be of the utmost value. Moreover, it was clear that the planning of post-war rehabilitation of British library services must be based on an assessment of their present holdings, and for this alone the check-list would provide most useful help.