It may include dictionaries, encyclopaedias, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, a few major periodicals. A basic information collection is not sufficiently intensive to support any courses or independent study in the subject area involved. It includes a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, and the reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject. Research Level A collection that includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It is intended to include all important reference works and a wide selection of specialised monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field.
Older material is retained for historical research.
Older material is retained for historical research. The definitions of collection strengths given above have been found to be very useful in evaluating the Library's holdings, even before conducting a full Conspectus survey. In view of its role as the centre of art librarianship in Britain, the NAL covers in some way everything that relates to art, craft and design in all periods and countries. If total comprehensiveness was the aim in the 19th century, and the rationale behind the production of the Universal catalogue of books on art in the 1870s, this goal has had to be modified in the very different library, information handling, and publishing environment of the second half of the 20th century. Before this period, the collections are among the most comprehensive in the world.