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of the systems is no longer in line with current business needs and the fact that the British Library's software is out of date is often a hindrance, particularly as concerns cooperation with other organizations.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.