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One of the main difficulties in operating a service for the public is that the public, though very much in evidence individually, may collectively be an unknown quantity. When the service is one offering business and commercial information the difficulties are compounded. The field is fluid, the literature extensive and its acquisition complex. Much of the material quickly becomes out of date. Furthermore, the seeker of business and commercial information has, or may have, many strings to his bow and the part played by any single formal information set up is not obvious.

Manchester Commercial Library has one of the largest collections of business information available to the public in the UK. It is especially well provided with British and foreign company information. The library also has access to all the major online host services and extensive use is made of databases for company information.

This is very much a personal view of public library service to commerce and industry and does not attempt to give a considered survey of the position in the country as a whole. It is almost impossible to generalize for there seem to be almost as many policies as there are public library systems and the priority given to this service compared with all the other diverse services to the community which a public library is expected to give, varies from authority to authority. At one extreme there are those who appear to take the view that ratepayers' money should not be spent in contributing further profits to rich companies and, in any case, if such a service is required it is not the responsibility of local government. Other public libraries claim to give a service to commerce and industry but, in fact, make very little positive provision in the way of staffing and stock. Probably a minority of authorities are far‐sighted enough to appreciate that business enterprises pay a large share of the local rates and employ the majority of domestic ratepayers, and that money spent in providing this kind of service is a sound investment in the economic vitality of an area. The proportion of libraries appropriate to each of these three categories is difficult to assess but Dr Clements found that 4 public libraries out of 33 surveyed dealt with 56 per cent of the commercial and technical enquiries. Quality of service is not necessarily related to size of system and there are a few comparatively small libraries which maintain excellent co‐operation with local industry. Next year there will be a revolution in local government outside London and the number of library authorities will be reduced from 381 to 117. The elected representatives and most of the chief officers of these new authorities have now been chosen and will take office on 1st April 1974. New policies are already being discussed and if you feel dissatisfied with your present service, now is the time to act.

To illustrate the importance of business libraries and information within the national economy, illustrates a number of different UK business and industrial libraries. Describes their typical work and indicates the enormous range of questions which they are called on to answer.

THE question which Mr. Sanderson asked at the March meeting of the Home Counties Branch of the Library Association is susceptible of many answers. “Are libraries doing their job?” he asked. In general we think that they are doing their best in circumstances which are not always stimulating. He used the work they do with children as an example; describing it, if The Manchester Guardian reports him aright, as being in many places “a few juggling tricks with books and a certain amount of shop‐window dressing.” Again, “two or three shelves of books would suffice for the average student studying for a university degree, but the urgent need for those shelves was in danger of being forgotten by libraries in their craze for special stuff.” Mr. Sanderson's address had much more in it than these two excerpts would imply. They are, however, worth separate consideration. Librarians can answer if they are true or not. We know of places of which such remarks would be libellous; of others where they are mere truth.

Oneadvantage of living in a democratic country is the multiplicity of information sources openly available. Those who believe in a more authoritarian or bureaucratic form of government can point to the economic waste of having so many lines of communication which often overlap, are sometimes even contradictory and, moreover, lack the authority of the state. The business world does not accept this view. It requires great flexibility in its supply of information. It needs to examine a problem from every possible angle and be given the opportunity to select and evaluate information, particularly in that very wide area where it is difficult to distinguish between facts and opinions.

The implications of the Single European Market for libraries and information services are considered with some examples of what is being done. After a general introduction to 1992, the Plan of Action for Libraries in the EC is considered and the library implications of the five Action Lines. The roles of European Documentation Centres, EC Depository Libraries, European Reference Centres; Euro Information Centres and online databases are considered, together with developments in co‐operation and also the human implications.

THE traditional division of information services into science and technology on the one hand and the humanities on the other, does nothing to improve the provision of information in a multi‐disciplinary subject such as planning. The proposal to make separate provision, within the national framework, for the social sciences, which was put forward by J. E. Pemberton in the November issue of this journal, would only serve to further fragment the sources of information in planning.

AH businesses regardless of their size and sphere of activity require information in order to exist, to compete and to survive. In business planning and marketing, the need for factual and up‐to‐date information has never been greater and the consequences of ill‐informed decision‐making can be disastrous. I have been asked to consider what libraries are doing to meet these needs for business information.

THE BBC's television services have a longer history than is generally realised. Experiments were going on in 1925 and 1926, broadcasts were being put out as early as 1933 or 1934, and on 2nd November, 1936 the BBC gave Great Britain the world's first regular television service, operating on the 405‐line standard in the Very High Frequency channels.