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The original impetus to freate this library network System arose
because of the disappointing situation among public-authority libraries in
Bonn : they had only just begun to participate in any sort of real co-
opération at ail. Let me quote a few facts to give you some idea of the cir-
cumstances.
At present, there are twenty libraries in Bonn belonging to Fédéral
ministries and suprême authorities. They employ a total staff of 217 of
whom 71 work in the Bundestag Library. The budgetary funds available for
new acquisitions or book bindings is DM 4,113,000 per year including a
sum of DM 869,000 for the Bundestag Library. The total stock of books in
hand is now 1,925,000 volumes, 600,000 of them at the Bundestag. The
number of new acquisitions per annum is 65,000 books for ail libraries and
22,000 for the Bundestag. I am quoting the data for the Bundestag Library
so that you will able to ascertain the position held by the Parliamentary
Library among the suprême authority libraries in Bonn in terms of size.
Last year, an analysis was made of the books held at the libraries in
question and this revealed that the Bundestag Library also had 70% of the
volumes available throughout the whole series of libraries. The obvious
implication of this discovery was that the Bundestag Library would
automatically assume the leading rôle in bringing the network scheme into
being.
The System used for classifying books varies considerably books varies
considerably from one library to the other. The Bundestag Library, for in-
stance, opérâtes a quintuple catalogue System (known as the Gülich System)
whilst the Ministry of the Interior has a cross-reference catalogue in ad-
dition to a full systematic cataloguing scheme. Four libraries operate not
Ionly a systematic catalogue but also a location catalogue. Three of the
libraries run a special catalogue for their journals and magazines.
A similar picture emerges in regard to the use of formai cataloguing rules
and in effect the catalogues of the various libraries are hardly comparable
with each other.
In view of the steadily increasing requirements of public authorities in
regard to information, it was only a matter of time before the Ministry
Libraries would fmd themselves unable to meet the demands made of them.
An attempt was made to provide better information facilities and to use the
public funds placed at the disposai of libraries in a more rational way.
The work of such differing libraries can only be co-ordinated if certain
prerequisites are fulfilled. What are these pre-conditions?
- firstly, there must be clear-cut administrative jurisdiction in the various
libraries, i.e. they must be operated as independent organisational units ;
- secondly, there ought to be proper supervision of ail libraries par-
ticipating in the network scheme by giving one suitably staffed library the
Bibliotheekgids — Jg. 54 — Nr. 1 -= 1978 / 37 |