ABSTRACT
The decade from 1991 to 2000 was significant for government libraries and librarians, as it was for central government generally, for a number of reasons. A number of the shaping forces and high priorities in government libraries were, driven by the need to deal with policies intended to address management issues in the civil service. Among the policies that John Major's government will be noted for is the development of a strong citizen-centric service ethic. The blueprint for the policy was the Citizen's Charter programme, launched in July 1991 with a white paper by the Prime Minister saying that it would 'find better ways of converting money into better services'. Government information and library services were recommended to develop structured networks of internal resources, to develop the role of information and library professionals to include facilitation, advice, and the assessment of needs and information resources, and to structure themselves to support decision-making processes.
