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To analyze the historical significance of Donald J. Urquhart, who established the National Lending Library for Science and Technology (NLL) which later was merged into the British Library Lending Division (BLLD), now called the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC). His significance will be considered from the perspective of the development of science as a whole as well as library and information science in particular.

The paper presents a short history of the probabilistic revolution, particularly as it developed in Britain in the form of biometric statistics due to Darwin's theory of evolution. It focuses on the overthrow of the normal paradigm, according to which frequency distributions in nature and society conform to the normal law of error. The paper discusses the importance of the Poisson distribution and its utilization in the construction of stochastic models that better describe reality. Here the focus is on the compound Poisson distribution in the form of the negative binomial distribution (NBD). The paper then shows how Urquhart extended the probabilistic revolution to librarianship by using the Poisson as the probabilistic model in his analyses of the 1956 external loans made by the Science Museum Library (SML) as well as in his management of the scientific and technical (sci/tech) journal collection of the NLL. Due to this, Urquhart can be considered as playing a pivotal role in the creation of bibliometrics or the statistical bases of modern library and information science. The paper relates how Urquhart's son and daughter‐in‐law, John A. and Norma C. Urquhart, completed Urquhart's probabilistic breakthrough by advancing for the first time the NBD as the model for library use in a study done at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, connecting bibliometrics with biometrics. It concludes with a discussion of Urquhart's Law and its probabilistic implications for the use of sci/tech journals in a library system.

By being the first librarian to apply probability to the analysis of sci/tech journal use, Urquhart was instrumental in the creation of modern library and information science. His findings force a probabilistic re‐conceptualization of sci/tech journal use in a library system that has great implications for the transition of sci/tech journals from locally held paper copies to shared electronic databases.

This is the second part of an article describing the seminal contribution of Donald Urquhart to the development of document supply in the UK and internationally.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the historical significance of Donald J. Urquhart, who established the National Lending Library for Science and Technology (NLL) that later was merged into the British Library Lending Division (BLLD), now called the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC).

The paper presents a short history of the probabilistic revolution, particularly as it developed in the UK in the form of biometric statistics due to Darwin's theory of evolution. It focuses on the overthrow of the normal paradigm, according to which frequency distributions in nature and society conform to the normal law of error. The paper discusses the importance of the Poisson distribution and its utilization in the construction of stochastic models that better describe reality. Here the focus is on the compound Poisson distribution in the form of the negative binomial distribution (NBD). The paper then shows how Urquhart extended the probabilistic revolution to librarianship by using the Poisson as the probabilistic model in his analyses of the 1956 external loans made by the Science Museum Library (SML) as well as in his management of the scientific and technical (sci/tech) journal collection of the NLL. Thanks to this, Urquhart can be considered as playing a pivotal role in the creation of bibliometrics or the statistical bases of modern library and information science. The paper relates how Urquhart's son and daughter‐in‐law, John A. and Norma C. Urquhart, completed Urquhart's probabilistic breakthrough by advancing for the first time the NBD as the model for library use in a study executed at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, connecting bibliometrics with biometrics. It concludes with a discussion of Urquhart's Law and its probabilistic implications for the use of sci/tech journals in a library system.

By being the first librarian to apply probability to the analysis of sci/tech journal use, Urquhart was instrumental in the creation of modern library and information science. His findings force a probabilistic re‐conceptualization of sci/tech journal use in a library system that has great implications for the transition of sci/tech journals from locally held paper copies to shared electronic databases.

Urquhart's significance is considered from the perspective of the development of science as a whole as well as library and information science in particular.

The topic I wish to present is not a simple one and the position is confused by discordant voices each advocating different solutions to quite different problems. I will present to you certain facts which seem to me to be important, and some possible interpretations of these facts. The whole is designed to provoke discussion of the problem of improving our technical library service. The essential thesis is that the future lines of development of public technological library services will be mainly influenced by factors outside the control of the library profession but which must be appreciated if librarians are not to act like King Canute and attempt to stop the incoming tide. Lest my reference to this anecdote should conjure up a picture of a spot on the English coast and a twice‐daily tide, let me urge you to treat the world as our stage and the next few decades as our unit of time.

Judgingfrom Dr Urquhart's outline of the situation in Britain, it would appear to have a good many points of resemblance with that in the Netherlands. Much of what he said I can fully endorse, and if I endeavour to reply to him this must not be thought to imply any criticism of his remarks, but rather, I hope, some further support of his thesis by reference to my own experience in this country. I therefore propose, first, to indicate the points of resemblance between the situations in our two countries, and then the differences, and thirdly, I should like to add something to Dr Urquhart's observations or enlarge on them.

There have been many signs of a growing interest in the idea of a national lending library for the humanities. The manifestations of this interest include two articles, by D. J. Urquhart and D. J. Foskett, directly on the subject; an article by S. P. L. Filon on the new book‐buying policy of the National Central Library; and the review by I. P. Gibb of the report on the operation of the United States Farmington Plan.

Dr Urquhart said that the work done by Aslib and the National Lending Library for Science and Technology within the field of translations was only the tip of the iceberg. He, however, was looking at the whole of the iceberg of scientific and technical translations.

Within D.S.I.R., by a technical information service we do not mean a library or an abstracting service or a translating service. A technical information service may contain all or none of these. The essential thing about it is that it should be actively concerned with getting information in a suitable form to the user. Within this definition I should like to stress the word ‘actively’. We regard a service such as a library service which is only concerned with dealing with customers who approach it, as a passive service. To see if this has always been the view held in the Department I began to study the earlier papers relating to the Department. That, of course, is an appropriate activity because this year on 1st December the Department is forty years young.

For the last six months I have been part of a small section of D.S.I.R. which is planning the National Lending Library for Science and Technology. To begin with, the section had no name. Now we call ourselves the D.S.I.R. Lending Library Unit. Today I want to tell you a little of how we are going about the job.

The paper attempts to provide an outline account of the development and context of scientific and technical communication during the twentieth century. The main channels and forms of communication are reviewed, and their changing contributions to the overall pattern of information flow. The ever‐increasing volume and diversity of scientific and technical information are emphasised. The paper concludes with some reflections on what may be learnt from this history.

AT the very outset of this paper it is necessary to make clear that it is not an attempt to compile an exhaustive bibliography of literature relating to special librarianship. Neither space nor time permit this. In fact, the references given can only claim to be a sample of the wealth of material on the subject and this paper is submitted in the hope that it will stimulate others to more scholarly efforts. Reference numbers throughout this paper refer to items in the ‘Select list of references to the literature of special librarianship’, section 2 onwards.