HL Deb 31 May 1960 vol 224 cc108-9

2.45 p.m.

VISCOUNT DE L'ISLE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any progress has been made with regard to the proposed National Reference Library of Science and Invention.]

THE LORD PRIVY SEAL AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM)

My Lords, as I told the House in reply to a Question on July 30, 1958, it is proposed to house the National Reference Library of Science and Invention in a new Patent Office building which is to be erected on the South Bank. I am glad to be able to tell the House that the terms of a lease of the site are now being settled between the Ministry of Works and the London County Council, and that it is hoped to start building in the spring of 1963, with a view to completion by the end of 1965.

As I said on July 30, 1958, the Library will be built up and expanded from the existing Patent Office Library. It has now been decided that it would be in the long-term interest of learning, and of the completeness of the national collections of scientific literature, for the National Reference Library of Science and Invention to be formed as part of the British Museum Library, although housed as a separate unit. Scientific publications at present in the British Museum Library will be incorporated in the new Library. Care will of course be taken to safeguard the interests and convenience of those who use the present Patent Office Library, and they will be represented on an Advisory Committee to be set up when the new Library is brought into operation.

VISCOUNT DE L'ISLE

My Lords, is the noble Viscount aware that Her Majesty's Government's decision of policy, to form the National Reference Library of Science and Invention as part of the British Museum Library, is warmly welcomed by the Trustees of the British Museum; for it will in due course make available to students and researchers the existing scientific resources of both the Patent Office Library and of the British Museum Scientific Collections in a compendious way, and with the minimum of duplication in the future?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

I am grateful to my noble and gallant friend for saying that.