National Library and Information Research Planning and Policy with Special Reference to the United Kingdom

Abstract

Attempts to plan an overall strategy for library and information research face a whole series of problems, beginning with the most fundamental question of all – what is library and information research? Of equal importance for discussing the topic is the failure of developed countries to implement a properly planned national information policy. Without such a policy, is it even possible to find a generally acceptable rationale for a national research programme for library and information studies? Developments in research planning in the UK over the past decade are used as a basis for examining questions of this kind. The British Library Research and Development Department provides an example of how a well-established funding body can give some coherence at the level of national planning of research even though library and information policies are fragmented. The future of such policies is problematic; there will certainly be forward planning for particular topics, but it is highly uncertain as to whether such partial policies will be coordinated or sprout up separately, perhaps even in competition with one another. Currently, the balance between the forces favouring coordination and those favouring continued fragmentation seems somewhat weighted towards the latter.