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This article follows on an investigation conducted by the Unit for Library and Information Research of the Human Sciences Research Council in 1981 for the Department of National Education. The article is limited to a consideration of the aim and functions of national library services. Matters such as the organisation and management of these services, the pros and cons of centralisation and decentralisation in particular circumstances, bringing services into line with modern demands, problem areas in existing services, the raison d'être of national library and information advisory councils alongside the management councils of national library services, legislation of these services, etc. have been excluded from the discussion.

The use of an ICT 1905 computer for the mechanization of library procedures at The City University was considered as part of the library reorganization prior to the acquisition of University status. In view of the smallness of the library staff and the pressure of work it seemed essential to select an area which would quickly lead to relieving staff of tedious routine work, and at the same time provide useful training in computer applications. There seemed no point in attempting to duplicate exercises which were being currently tackled by larger libraries e.g. cataloguing, and the volume of loans hardly justified mechanization of circulation records at the present time.

The paper began with the announcement that the MARC Project, as set up in 1967, was now formally finished. The final report had been written and submitted to OSTI. The original terms of reference of the Project, which were to ‘test the feasibility of creating and using machine‐readable catalogue records’, had long been out of date. It was time to begin to regard MARC as just another service in a stable of bibliographic services.

Procedures are discussed by which all types of libraries irrespective of size can use Marc tapes effectively. Based on the planning for the second stage of the AWRE AMCOS system, the paper proposes that each library establish a Potential Requirements File by a selective intake of new Marc records to provide all the functions of an efficient acquisitions system. These methods for selection and acquisition can be used as the foundations for a cataloguing system. A proposal is made for alerting cataloguers automatically when local cataloguing practice conflicts with that of BNB.

The format for bibliographical records of monographs that will be distributed in machineable form by the Library of Congress and the British National Bibliography as the second stage of Project MARC has now been agreed upon. All significant differences between the records produced in the two countries have been removed and compatibility problems will be minimal.

VINE is a Very Informal Newsletter produced three times a year by the Information Officer for Library Automation and financed by the British Library Research & Development Department. It is issued free of charge on request to interested librarians, systems staff and library college lecturers. VINE'S objective is to provice an up‐to‐date picture of work being done in U.K. library automation which has not been reported elsewhere.

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.

This afternoon I want to look at three major problems which must be faced by any library attempting to design an automation system that utilises MARC records. The problems are:

Before starting to trace the development of PRECIS to its theoretical beginnings I shall describe the system briefly in its present form. This will serve not only as an introduction for those who are not familiar with the system, but will also help to explain the relevance of some of the historical sections which follow, in which we shall see how a machine‐produced alphabetical indexing system, based on a syntax derived from a study of natural language, developed out of research into principles for a new general classification.

THERE has recently sprung up a great interest in antiques, probably due to Arthur Negus and his TV and broadcast programmes, and perhaps it is this which has made county librarians also, think about their past and their beginnings. Gloucestershire was the first to become aware of the fact that its library was fifty years old, and that a genuine antique, in the shape of its first librarian, still existed and could be questioned about the early days. So in December, 1967, the Gloucestershire Library Committee staged a most successful 50th birthday party, and invited me to cut the birthday cake, on which were 50 candles! And a very great occasion it was.