Systematic Library Use of British National Bibliography Services and Data

Abstract

A summary of the report of a final stage in a research programme studying the impact of the British National Bibliography on British library systems. An attempt by postal question naire to establish the extent to which BNB services and data are integrated in systems for the selection, acquisition and cataloguing of current British publications showed that, while such use of BNB was widespread and considerable, in current practices of most categories of libraries there was little indication that the ability to integrate acquisitions with cata loguing, such as is accepted as an advantage of MARC-based mechanized systems, would in itself provide sufficient inducement for acceptance of MARC by most BNB-using libraries at present.