ABSTRACT
When the British Library was being set up in the very early 1970s, Lord Eccles, then the Minister responsible (and later first Chairman of the Board), said that it should not be called the National Library because it should be international in both scope and outlook. Indeed the exceptionally outward looking and service oriented character of the British Library will be well known to librarians familiar with the Document Supply Centre, Bibliographic Services Division and Research and Development Department, and by the fact that it earns over £12,000,000 about three quarters from Science, Technology and Industry. The same attitude has always been at the heart of that part of the British Library which was called the Science Reference Library but which, since December 1985, is now the Science Reference and Information Service (SRIS). This article will attempt to demonstrate the reality behind that claim. First, however, for those not familiar with the current organisational structure, here is a brief description of what SRIS is and its place in the British Library.
