THE ROLE OF A RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT INFORMATION UNIT IN A LARGE LIBRARY

Good management information is important in all libraries but particularly so in the larger ones where the senior management will have less contact with the day-to-day operations of the library and with users than a manager of a small library. By any standards the Lending Division of the British Library is a large library with a very high level of use. lts functions are weIl known to everyone present but it may be useful if I give some indication of the size and level of performance of the Division. It is primarily alending library with a stock of about 1 1/3 million monographs, approximately 121,000 serial titles, and 1 1/2 million reports and other items. This stock is growing at a rate of 60,000 monographs p.a.; and 80,000 reports p.a., mostlyon microfiche. Nearly 49,000 serials titles are currently taken. In addition to its stock, the Division maintains and us es catalogues of material held elsewhere in the UK and abroad. In the last financial year some 2 1/2 million interlibrary loan requests were made to the Division, 2.2 million from the UK and 370,000 i.e. 15 % from overseas. 2 1/2 million requests per annum mean on average 10,000 requests per day; but there is considerable seasonal fluctuation and at peak periods (which largely coincide with academic terms) some 12,000 requests ar