dress this issue."

The reference collections represented on OPAC 97 comprise:

a) Modern books and periodicals from Britain and overseas;

b) Humanities and Social Sciences collection (from 1975), which include:
humanities and social sciences information; popular science and psychology
holdings; modern oriental holdings; rich resources relating to Africa; Hispanic
materials relating to Spain, Portugal, Portuguese North Africa and Latin
America; one of Europe's largest collection relating to Slavonic, East European
and Soviet studies;

c) Science, Technology and Business collection (from 1975);

d) Music collection (1980- ), one of the world's finest collections of printed
music;

e) Older books and periodicals from Britain and overseas;

f) Older reference material collection (to 1975 only), incomparable holdings of
early printing from Britain and overseas Western and Oriental materials from the
beginning of writing, including: archives and materials assembled by the former
India Office; rich resources relating to Africa; Hispanic materials relating to
Spain, Portugal, Portuguese North Africa and Latin America (one of Europe's
largest collections relating to Slavonic, East European and Soviet studies);
historical resources for scientific, technological and business information; and
musical works.

The Document Supply collections represented on OPAC 97 are comprised of:

a) Books and reports collection (from 1980), which covers millions of British
and overseas books, reports and UK theses;

b) Journals/Serials collection (from 1700), including half a million British and
overseas periodicals (journals and serials);

c) Conference collection (from 1800), which is the world's largest collection of
conference proceedings.

Parts of the current systems are now 20 years old. The basic design of the
systems is no longer in line with current business needs and the fact that the
British Library's software is out of date is often a hindrance, particularly as
concerns cooperation with other organizations. The British Library has therefore
decided to replace these systems, and the Corporate Bibliographic Programme is
charged with implementing this decision.

The key objectives of the Programme, as summarized on their website, are:

"- To ensure the continuation of essential processes and services, i.e.
creating, maintaining and providing access to catalogue data;

- to make these processes and services more efficient