The National Role in Resource Allocation

THEALLOCATION OF resources within a system is conditioned by its objectives. These are determined to a great extent by the way those in control look at their problems; this is conditioned by their experiences, which are in turn conditioned by the allocation of resources in the past. There is thus an inherent internal stability of'the arrangements within a system. This stability, ho~vever, can be destroyed by some major external force. In the library world such a force is now apparent-the continuous growth in the output of' publications. This force has begun, but only just begun, to change the approach to library problems. For instance, not long ago it was regarded as a confession of failure in some British university libraries to have to borrow a publication from elsewhere. That period has now passed. Today it is recognized that no library, not even a university library, can be an island. But this change in the United Kingdon is so recent that there is no generally accepted philosophy as to when a library should rely on its own resources and when it should rely on those of others. This article will try to formulate such a philosophy. It is written with the conditions in the United Kingdom in mind, but it will attempt to consider the problem in general terms. It will, however, approach the problem from the viewpoint of academic libraries. I will assume that it is axiomatic that the local resources of an academic library are limited. I also assume that the total resources of a national or a regional library system will be limited. The questions to be discussed relate to the division of functions (and hence of resources) between libraries designed to serve particular institutions and libraries designed to serve a wider audience. The discussion will be primarily concerned with the cost effectiveness of a library system as a whole. Despite the risk of over-simplifying the problem, let us consider that an academic library is concerned with meeting the needsof its students,