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The conference sessions are entitled ‘Instant Information in a Changing Scene’. You will not need me to tell you that ‘current affairs information’ and ‘instant information’ are not necessarily always one and the same thing. If I am asked the exact date of the Battle of Trafalgar, and am able to reply at once, then I am giving instant information, but not on a topic of current affairs. Alternatively, on being required to find the very latest official Government statement on a particular subject, and on being given half a day to do so, I am handling a current affairs enquiry on a far‐from‐immediate basis. A very obvious distinction: but one which I know we shall bear in mind throughout today's Conference.

‘Information transfer’ may be considered at different levels of sophistication. The subject goes much wider and deeper than, for example, the physical movement of library materials from one location to another. It is wise for us to remember, however, that behind all our discussions at this Conference, and behind the massive apparatus of the Congressional Research Service in Washington and of the National Diet Library in Tokyo, lies one simply expressed requirement: that of providing the right person or organization with the right information in the right manner at the right time. The most carefully organized information retrieval systems are sometimes defeated by elementary slips or misunderstandings on the part of those who operate them. From this introduction you will have deduced that I am a firm believer in the overriding human values of common sense, intelligence and attentiveness to the matter in hand—whatever the question and whatever the circumstances.

The Library provides information, documentation and research services to Members of the House of Commons. The organization of the Library and the history of POLIS (the Parliamentary On‐Line Information System) are described. The system became operational in 1980, and was set up by and is operated by Scicon Computer Services Ltd. Data entry is performed by the Library's Indexing Unit. Details of the telecommunications, software, hardware and database are given. UNIDAS retrieval software is used, and subject indexing is based on a thesaurus compiled by the Library. Most Library staff are being trained to use the retrieval facilities. Other offices of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords also have terminals linked to the system. Approved non‐Parliamentary users may also subscribe to POLIS via the public‐switched telephone network, Euronet or PSS. Other uses of computers by the Library are described.

A description of the services of the House of Commons Library is given and of POLIS (the Parliamentary Online Information System). The selection, planning and implementation of the ENQuiries database using the BasisPlus text management software package to record, retrieve and provide management information about the enquiry workload of the House of Commons Library is described. Originally implemented on a VAX 8250 with the other POLIS databases which used BASIS, ENQ was then moved to a MicroVax and then with the rest of POLIS to two VAX 4600s. It now runs on a UNIX processor. The workflow, management reports and consultation process are described. The success of the application is described with reference to its original objectives. A chronology is given.

I have accepted the task of presenting a paper on British official publications because the House of Commons Library, in which I have had the advantage of working during the last 28 years, provides a good base from which to survey the whole field. We are strong in the older publications. During the last century, the main initiative came from Parliament, and in particular from the House of Commons. A hundred years ago the Civil Service was relatively small. Nearly all official documents were published by the authority of Parliament. Parliament was concerned with the pre‐legislative stage, identifying problems, examining witnesses, and bringing dark areas into the full glare of publicity. Much has changed. Our Civil Service is now large and powerful. It is for that reason that, like many other legislators, British Members seek to arm themselves against the Executive. Their Library plays a small part in the struggle. Because we are all librarians, it may be of interest to let one of my predecessors, Thomas Vardon, speak for himself:

THOSE FEW OF YOU, comparatively, on the receiving end of the much‐heralded £1000m cuts in government spending announced in mid‐July needn't feel lonely for long. The cuts were cosmetic in relation to the problem, like a smatter of eye‐black to prepare Edith Evans to play Ophelia, and there will be more in the annual November budget, and again next year. I have long reckoned that recession hits the world of books 1½‐2 years after the mainstream industrial economy, and the first sign of upturn in the latter means a bumpy ride still to come for us. So keep the purse‐strings tied up tight yet awhile.

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.

What follows is an attempt to pull together the threads of what one person got out of the conference. Unavoidably, my selection of threads is a personal one, and in consequence my embroidery cannot pretend to objectivity. I am sure I shall have missed much that others will have found of interest and value.

At the outset, let it be said clearly that criticism of the British Library Bibliographic Services Division (BSD) should not obscure its distinctive origins, achievements and successes.

YOU MAY recall that the December 1974 issue of NLW contained a Christmas Quiz. Readers were asked to identify various libraries described in passages extracted from a motley and heterogeneous selection of books the compiler had chanced upon in half‐a‐lifetime's casual reading. In all honesty the response to the quiz was a little less than heartening and never reached even modest expectations. Not to put too fine a point on it, there was not one single entry. Clearly the books from which the passages were quoted lacked any discernible theme and the odds against anyone duplicating the compiler's miscellaneous reading habits were so outrageous that this caused no surprise.