A Study on the Sources and Services Rendered to Modern Society by the British Library

Abstract

The British Library is the United Kingdom’s international organization of educational opportunities and cultural relations. In India the British council operates as a division of the British High commission and has offices in the four metro cities. The present Article studies mainly the sources and services rendered to modern society by the British library at Chennai. The other objective of the study is to collect information regarding the types of readers in British library, Chennai. The users include post graduate students, research scholars, faculty members, lawyers and common public; they formed the population of the study. A sample of 150 respondents has been selected on the basis of stratified random sampling method. There are different types of members such as silver, gold, gold plus, Diamond, Diamond plus and platinum. Apart from the finest Collection of books, the library has educational videos, periodicals and newspapers from the U.K. The British Library has extensive resources. The sources of information can be grouped under two categories (1) Documentary sources and (2) Non-documentary the secondary sources in the British library are Test books periodicals and reference sources. The British libraries provide various services to its users. They can be categorized as: Reference services, Reprographics Service, Clipping Service, Current awareness Services, online services, automated services and SMS alert services.