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British depository arrangements for official publications
Governmenr
PublicationsReview,
Vol. 4. No. 2, pp. 123-126. Pergamon Press. 1977. Printed in great Britain.
BRITISH DEPOSITORY ARRANGEMENTS PUBLICATIONS
BARBARA
FOR OFFICIAL
SMITH
Government Documents Librarian, Skidmore College Library, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 12866, U.S.A. - This paper was presented at the International Documents Task Force Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November, 1974. Given at the session on National Depository Systems, it represents the result of her investigations in England as a 1973/74 Fellow of the Council on Library Resources.
Abstract
An editorial in the Monthly Notes of the Library Association for 1883 pointed out that “the question of the distribution to libraries of public documents printed at the national expense is one to which, as most of our readers are aware, the special attention of the Council and of the Association has now been for some time directed”.’ The editor, a,Mr. E. C. Thomas, went on to express his hope that his earlier reports on the “degree of success obtained by the libraries of the United States . . . should assuredly stimulate us to like exertions which will, it is to be hoped, be ultimately crowned by a like victory”.2 One wonders what Mr. Thomas would think if some 91 years later he could have sat in on a meeting of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Services Working Party, an ad hoc committee of the same Library Association, only to listen to a suggestion from its secretary that deposit collections of HMSO publications at least be offered to the newly reorganized local government authority libraries. After nearly a century of agitation on the part of a number of distinguished librarians (their sympathetic supporters including such names as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells);3 in spite of a series of representations made to the Treasury by Special Committees; even given the strongly worded recommendation presented to Parliament in the Kenyon Report of 1927,4 in the here and now of 1974 there is still no across the board depository system fat British government publications. What does exist as the only comparable arrangement to our U.S. depository system is the deposit privilege accorded to a handful of libraries by the law of legal deposit. The unrepealed Section 15 of the Copyright Act of 1911 provides first that the publisher of every book published in the United Kingdom (which must of course include HMSO) shall provide one copy to the British Museum and further, that on written demand, shall deliver to some depot in London one copy for each of the following libraries: the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the University Library, Cambridge; The Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh (in 1925 the National Library of Scotland was substituted for the Advocates Library); the Library of Trinity College, Dublin; and subject to certain provisions, the National Library of Wales. In other words, by virtue of the law of legal deposit, these “privileged” or “copyright libraries” receive from HMSO the full complement of its publications at no charge to themselves and thus become in effect depositories for British official publications. 123
124
BARBARA SMITH
While the wording of the Act suggests a distinction between the British Museum (which automatically receives a “best copy” of everything) and the other libraries (who are entitled only to what they ask for) in actual practice four of the remaining five enjoy the services of a London agent who systematically collects all HMSO publications in their behalf and ships them out weekly in great wooden book boxes. The National Library of Wales must apply directly because of provisions in the law which prohibit it from claiming certain books of either high price or limited edition. I would assume that this restriction rarely applies to HMSO publications.5 The copyright libraries may also invoke Treasury Circular 3/55 of 14 July 1955 entitled “Supply of Government Publications to Privileged Libraries” which states that the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury “have decided to enlarge the existing arrangements for the supply of Government publications to certain privileged libraries”. The Circular further provides that “The Stationery Office will continue to be responsible for the issue to the libraries concerned of publications which the Stationery Office places on sale on behalf of Departments. The libraries may not, however, become aware of the existence of material issued by Government Departments to the public, because it is not at present listed. It is proposed, therefore, that Departments should furnish to the libraries, at (say) six month intervals, lists of departmental publications and should, on written demand, be prepared to supply them with such of these publications as they may require; or alternatively (at the option of the Department) should supply the libraries automatically with their departmental publications”. In effect, Treasury Circular 3/55 makes it possible for the copyright libraries to collect non-HMSO publications on as broad a scale as their ingenuity permits. And this is a most significant option. Why? Let me explain. Traditionally HMSO classifies British official publications into two categories: (1) Parliamentary Papers which, in their broadest sense, are those papers arising out of legislative and political need as determined by Members of both Houses in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties; and (2) Non-Parliamentary Publications which, initiated by Government Departments on the basis of administrative need, encompass all the other publications of the Stationery Office and in fact constitute the greater part of its sales offerings. These are the publications supplied to the libraries under legal deposit. But, there is this third category of official publications which, for lack of a better term, are simply referred to as non-HMSO publications - these are, first of all, those publications put out by the various Government Departments themselves, and second, the annual reports of the nationalised industries. When you consider that there are few if any established bibliographical tools to identify this outpouring of print you begin to understand the problem. That it is a real rather than imaginary situation is corroborated through the data gathered by Roy Knight for his Master’s thesis on the bibliographical control of the non-HMSO departmental publications. 6 Mr. Knight wrote or interviewed something like 112 Government Departments and concluded from his research that the Departments are indeed autonomous publishers, issuing in all some 17,000 to 20,000 publications yearly. His figures tend to be supported by several librarians who had suggested to me that of their entire input of British official publications only about 30% came from HMSO while close to 70% were obtained from other sources. Some of the copyright libraries go to a good bit of effort to search out these elusive non-HMSO publications. Cambridge, Oxford, and the British Museum have a cooperative system wherein they use a form letter for claiming the non-HMSO material from Government Departments and circulate carbon copies of the claims among themselves. It goes without saying that you can claim only those publications whose existence you have in some way discovered. Given the fact of legal deposit, further reinforced since 1955 by the Treasury Circular provisions for Departmental publications, the holdings of the copyright libraries are so rich and comprehensive in
British depository arrangements for official publications
125
official publications that it is difficult to imagine circumstances in which the research worker would not be able to find sufficient material for his needs. Certainly the British Museum must have the most comprehensive collection of British government publications extant, but, and this is the catch, if one wishes to define a depository library as a place “where all Government publications could be freely consulted by the public immediately after publication”7 then the copyright libraries, treasure troves though they may well be, fall far short of the mark. Public libraries have for years recognized the need to supply government publications and have sought the establishment of a free system of distribution. It might not be too facetious to comment that their arguments apparently may have convinced everyone save the Treasury. Back in 1924 the editor of the Spectator made the following comment to George Stephen, City Librarian at Norwich, then serving as Honorable Secretary, Library Association’s Special Committee on Government Publications: “If it were a private firm, not a Government office,*which turned out such rich material they would make the country ring with accounts of the riches of these stores of knowledge. Unfortunately Governments appear to be unable to market anything. That being so, at any rate, let the Government deal out their goods to those who do know how to get them before the public”.* The Library Association’s Special Committee on Government Publications attempted through correspondence, petitions, and delegations to convince the Treasury to modify its stand on the abolishment in 1924 of the “free list” by which public libraries had been able to requisition from HMSO a number of free copies of Parliamentary and official publications. The Committee’s repeated representations brought forth a concession announced in the House of Commons on 4 March 1924 by Mr. William Graham, Financial Secretary to the Treasury. In reply to questions Mr. Graham stated that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had “decided in lieu of the existing arrangements under which a few publications are presented annually to some public libraries, other supplies being charged at full price, to authorize the Stationery Office to supply any Government publications in future at half the published price, or half the subscription price of a class of publications, as desired”.9 The Association’s reaction to the announcement of this fifty 070subsidy was that this was at best a mixed blessing since the abolition of the free list practically negated the concession in the case of the smaller libraries.‘0 The Committee then proposed the establishment
of Regional Depository Libraries -
“about twenty large public libraries in selected geographical areas . . . where all Government publications could be freely consulted by the public immediately after publication.” 11 The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, while allowing that he was “considerably
impressed by the representations
made,”
hedged the depository question nicely by announcing on 17 July 1925 that he would postpone his decision until he had time to consider any proposals which the Committee on Public Libraries might make in their forthcoming report.‘* The long awaited Kenyon Report of 1927 as it is popularly known (officially the Board of Education’s Public Libraries Committee Report on Public Libraries in England and Wales, Cmd. 2868) minced no words in its section on government publications. Paragraph 599 argued that:
126
BARBARA
SMITH
“The information which has been collected by order of Parliament or by the direction of His Majesty’s Government is intended for the guidance and instruction of the people of the country, and . . . unless it is made readily accessible the money spent on its production has been largely wasted. It is obviously in the interest of the Government and of the country that this information should be as widely disseminated as possible. If the information has been worth collecting and producing at all, it is worth while to secure that it is made generally available.” The Committee on Public Libraries then formally recommended
(9 That government publications be sold at such prices as may be judged likely to secure for them a wide circulation. the cost of production being only a secondary element in the calculation. This accords with the resolution of the House of Commons in 1836,* and the practice based on it for 80 years. (ii) That free grants of government publications be made to a select list of public libraries, on the understanding that these libraries will serve as centres of supply for surrounding areas. (iii) That, in addition, any public library be allowed to requisition a free copy of any government publication within a year of publication, subject to the discretion of the Stationery Office to prevent abuse of this privilege. and further: In the case of learned publications, such as those of the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission, universities and university colleges would be very proper recipients of free copies.13 The Kenyon Report was presented to Parliament in May 1927. The Treasury has had over forty years to consider the proposals; its long silence is, of course, a very loud “No.” And so we come full circle to a new round of persuasion. It is now 1974 and when the HMSO Services Working Party of the Library Association meets, its immediate agenda is concerned with such items as No. (4) Deposit collections of HMSO publications. REFERENCES 1.
Thomas, E. C., “Public Libraries and the ‘Promulgation List’,”
Monthly Notes of the Library Association,
vol. 4 (1883), p. 87. 2. Ibid. 3. Stephen, George A., “Government Publications,” (1924), p. 776. 4. Board of Education’s Public Libraries Committee (1927).
(letter)
The Times Literary Supplement, November
Report on Public Libraries
in England
20,
and Wales, Cmd. 2868
5. OllC, James Cl., “Free Books in an Affluent Society,” Library World, vol. 64 (December 1962) p. 163. into the Bibliographical Control and Accessibility of non-HMSO 6. Knight, R.F.E. (Roy). “An Investigation Master’s Thesis, University of London Departmental Official Publications in England and Wales.” Unpublished (1973). Passim. Publications: Their Distribution and Cost,” Library Association Record, 7. Stephen, George A., “Government vol. 27 (1925), p. 11. 8. Ibid., pp. 13-14. 9. Ibid., p. 10. 10. Ibid., p. 11. 11. Ibid. Publications: Their Cost and Distribution,” Nineteenth Century, vol. 120 B. M., “Government 12. Headicar, (1936), p. 713. 13. Recommendations nos. 53 and 54 under (c) The supply of government publications, p. 213.
* That the Parliamentary Papers and Reports printed for the use of the House public by purchase at the lowest price they can be furnished.
should
be rendered
accessible
to the
PublicationsReview,
Vol. 4. No. 2, pp. 123-126. Pergamon Press. 1977. Printed in great Britain.
BRITISH DEPOSITORY ARRANGEMENTS PUBLICATIONS
BARBARA
FOR OFFICIAL
SMITH
Government Documents Librarian, Skidmore College Library, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 12866, U.S.A. - This paper was presented at the International Documents Task Force Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November, 1974. Given at the session on National Depository Systems, it represents the result of her investigations in England as a 1973/74 Fellow of the Council on Library Resources.
Abstract
An editorial in the Monthly Notes of the Library Association for 1883 pointed out that “the question of the distribution to libraries of public documents printed at the national expense is one to which, as most of our readers are aware, the special attention of the Council and of the Association has now been for some time directed”.’ The editor, a,Mr. E. C. Thomas, went on to express his hope that his earlier reports on the “degree of success obtained by the libraries of the United States . . . should assuredly stimulate us to like exertions which will, it is to be hoped, be ultimately crowned by a like victory”.2 One wonders what Mr. Thomas would think if some 91 years later he could have sat in on a meeting of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Services Working Party, an ad hoc committee of the same Library Association, only to listen to a suggestion from its secretary that deposit collections of HMSO publications at least be offered to the newly reorganized local government authority libraries. After nearly a century of agitation on the part of a number of distinguished librarians (their sympathetic supporters including such names as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells);3 in spite of a series of representations made to the Treasury by Special Committees; even given the strongly worded recommendation presented to Parliament in the Kenyon Report of 1927,4 in the here and now of 1974 there is still no across the board depository system fat British government publications. What does exist as the only comparable arrangement to our U.S. depository system is the deposit privilege accorded to a handful of libraries by the law of legal deposit. The unrepealed Section 15 of the Copyright Act of 1911 provides first that the publisher of every book published in the United Kingdom (which must of course include HMSO) shall provide one copy to the British Museum and further, that on written demand, shall deliver to some depot in London one copy for each of the following libraries: the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the University Library, Cambridge; The Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh (in 1925 the National Library of Scotland was substituted for the Advocates Library); the Library of Trinity College, Dublin; and subject to certain provisions, the National Library of Wales. In other words, by virtue of the law of legal deposit, these “privileged” or “copyright libraries” receive from HMSO the full complement of its publications at no charge to themselves and thus become in effect depositories for British official publications. 123
124
BARBARA SMITH
While the wording of the Act suggests a distinction between the British Museum (which automatically receives a “best copy” of everything) and the other libraries (who are entitled only to what they ask for) in actual practice four of the remaining five enjoy the services of a London agent who systematically collects all HMSO publications in their behalf and ships them out weekly in great wooden book boxes. The National Library of Wales must apply directly because of provisions in the law which prohibit it from claiming certain books of either high price or limited edition. I would assume that this restriction rarely applies to HMSO publications.5 The copyright libraries may also invoke Treasury Circular 3/55 of 14 July 1955 entitled “Supply of Government Publications to Privileged Libraries” which states that the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury “have decided to enlarge the existing arrangements for the supply of Government publications to certain privileged libraries”. The Circular further provides that “The Stationery Office will continue to be responsible for the issue to the libraries concerned of publications which the Stationery Office places on sale on behalf of Departments. The libraries may not, however, become aware of the existence of material issued by Government Departments to the public, because it is not at present listed. It is proposed, therefore, that Departments should furnish to the libraries, at (say) six month intervals, lists of departmental publications and should, on written demand, be prepared to supply them with such of these publications as they may require; or alternatively (at the option of the Department) should supply the libraries automatically with their departmental publications”. In effect, Treasury Circular 3/55 makes it possible for the copyright libraries to collect non-HMSO publications on as broad a scale as their ingenuity permits. And this is a most significant option. Why? Let me explain. Traditionally HMSO classifies British official publications into two categories: (1) Parliamentary Papers which, in their broadest sense, are those papers arising out of legislative and political need as determined by Members of both Houses in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties; and (2) Non-Parliamentary Publications which, initiated by Government Departments on the basis of administrative need, encompass all the other publications of the Stationery Office and in fact constitute the greater part of its sales offerings. These are the publications supplied to the libraries under legal deposit. But, there is this third category of official publications which, for lack of a better term, are simply referred to as non-HMSO publications - these are, first of all, those publications put out by the various Government Departments themselves, and second, the annual reports of the nationalised industries. When you consider that there are few if any established bibliographical tools to identify this outpouring of print you begin to understand the problem. That it is a real rather than imaginary situation is corroborated through the data gathered by Roy Knight for his Master’s thesis on the bibliographical control of the non-HMSO departmental publications. 6 Mr. Knight wrote or interviewed something like 112 Government Departments and concluded from his research that the Departments are indeed autonomous publishers, issuing in all some 17,000 to 20,000 publications yearly. His figures tend to be supported by several librarians who had suggested to me that of their entire input of British official publications only about 30% came from HMSO while close to 70% were obtained from other sources. Some of the copyright libraries go to a good bit of effort to search out these elusive non-HMSO publications. Cambridge, Oxford, and the British Museum have a cooperative system wherein they use a form letter for claiming the non-HMSO material from Government Departments and circulate carbon copies of the claims among themselves. It goes without saying that you can claim only those publications whose existence you have in some way discovered. Given the fact of legal deposit, further reinforced since 1955 by the Treasury Circular provisions for Departmental publications, the holdings of the copyright libraries are so rich and comprehensive in
British depository arrangements for official publications
125
official publications that it is difficult to imagine circumstances in which the research worker would not be able to find sufficient material for his needs. Certainly the British Museum must have the most comprehensive collection of British government publications extant, but, and this is the catch, if one wishes to define a depository library as a place “where all Government publications could be freely consulted by the public immediately after publication”7 then the copyright libraries, treasure troves though they may well be, fall far short of the mark. Public libraries have for years recognized the need to supply government publications and have sought the establishment of a free system of distribution. It might not be too facetious to comment that their arguments apparently may have convinced everyone save the Treasury. Back in 1924 the editor of the Spectator made the following comment to George Stephen, City Librarian at Norwich, then serving as Honorable Secretary, Library Association’s Special Committee on Government Publications: “If it were a private firm, not a Government office,*which turned out such rich material they would make the country ring with accounts of the riches of these stores of knowledge. Unfortunately Governments appear to be unable to market anything. That being so, at any rate, let the Government deal out their goods to those who do know how to get them before the public”.* The Library Association’s Special Committee on Government Publications attempted through correspondence, petitions, and delegations to convince the Treasury to modify its stand on the abolishment in 1924 of the “free list” by which public libraries had been able to requisition from HMSO a number of free copies of Parliamentary and official publications. The Committee’s repeated representations brought forth a concession announced in the House of Commons on 4 March 1924 by Mr. William Graham, Financial Secretary to the Treasury. In reply to questions Mr. Graham stated that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had “decided in lieu of the existing arrangements under which a few publications are presented annually to some public libraries, other supplies being charged at full price, to authorize the Stationery Office to supply any Government publications in future at half the published price, or half the subscription price of a class of publications, as desired”.9 The Association’s reaction to the announcement of this fifty 070subsidy was that this was at best a mixed blessing since the abolition of the free list practically negated the concession in the case of the smaller libraries.‘0 The Committee then proposed the establishment
of Regional Depository Libraries -
“about twenty large public libraries in selected geographical areas . . . where all Government publications could be freely consulted by the public immediately after publication.” 11 The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, while allowing that he was “considerably
impressed by the representations
made,”
hedged the depository question nicely by announcing on 17 July 1925 that he would postpone his decision until he had time to consider any proposals which the Committee on Public Libraries might make in their forthcoming report.‘* The long awaited Kenyon Report of 1927 as it is popularly known (officially the Board of Education’s Public Libraries Committee Report on Public Libraries in England and Wales, Cmd. 2868) minced no words in its section on government publications. Paragraph 599 argued that:
126
BARBARA
SMITH
“The information which has been collected by order of Parliament or by the direction of His Majesty’s Government is intended for the guidance and instruction of the people of the country, and . . . unless it is made readily accessible the money spent on its production has been largely wasted. It is obviously in the interest of the Government and of the country that this information should be as widely disseminated as possible. If the information has been worth collecting and producing at all, it is worth while to secure that it is made generally available.” The Committee on Public Libraries then formally recommended
(9 That government publications be sold at such prices as may be judged likely to secure for them a wide circulation. the cost of production being only a secondary element in the calculation. This accords with the resolution of the House of Commons in 1836,* and the practice based on it for 80 years. (ii) That free grants of government publications be made to a select list of public libraries, on the understanding that these libraries will serve as centres of supply for surrounding areas. (iii) That, in addition, any public library be allowed to requisition a free copy of any government publication within a year of publication, subject to the discretion of the Stationery Office to prevent abuse of this privilege. and further: In the case of learned publications, such as those of the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission, universities and university colleges would be very proper recipients of free copies.13 The Kenyon Report was presented to Parliament in May 1927. The Treasury has had over forty years to consider the proposals; its long silence is, of course, a very loud “No.” And so we come full circle to a new round of persuasion. It is now 1974 and when the HMSO Services Working Party of the Library Association meets, its immediate agenda is concerned with such items as No. (4) Deposit collections of HMSO publications. REFERENCES 1.
Thomas, E. C., “Public Libraries and the ‘Promulgation List’,”
Monthly Notes of the Library Association,
vol. 4 (1883), p. 87. 2. Ibid. 3. Stephen, George A., “Government Publications,” (1924), p. 776. 4. Board of Education’s Public Libraries Committee (1927).
(letter)
The Times Literary Supplement, November
Report on Public Libraries
in England
20,
and Wales, Cmd. 2868
5. OllC, James Cl., “Free Books in an Affluent Society,” Library World, vol. 64 (December 1962) p. 163. into the Bibliographical Control and Accessibility of non-HMSO 6. Knight, R.F.E. (Roy). “An Investigation Master’s Thesis, University of London Departmental Official Publications in England and Wales.” Unpublished (1973). Passim. Publications: Their Distribution and Cost,” Library Association Record, 7. Stephen, George A., “Government vol. 27 (1925), p. 11. 8. Ibid., pp. 13-14. 9. Ibid., p. 10. 10. Ibid., p. 11. 11. Ibid. Publications: Their Cost and Distribution,” Nineteenth Century, vol. 120 B. M., “Government 12. Headicar, (1936), p. 713. 13. Recommendations nos. 53 and 54 under (c) The supply of government publications, p. 213.
* That the Parliamentary Papers and Reports printed for the use of the House public by purchase at the lowest price they can be furnished.
should
be rendered
accessible
to the