The National Lending Library for Science and Technology and its collection of Russian scientific literature in Cold War Britain
Resource type
Presentation
Creator (person)
Ledgerwood, Emmeline G. B.
Date published
April 13, 2026
Abstract
When the British Library was formed in 1973, it brought together a number of national libraries including the National Lending Library for Science and Technology (NLLST) which became the British Library’s Lending Division. Opening at Boston Spa, Yorkshire, in 1962 with the aim of collecting ‘the literature of the world which may be of value to the scientist and technologist’, NLLST was the responsibility of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). This new national library played a fundamental role in circulating scientific literature to scientists in the UK and further afield while also becoming home to a rich collection of Russian material, the result of DSIR’s post-war strategy to expand the acquisition and translation of Russian-language scientific literature.
Drawing on material in the British Library Corporate Archive and other public records, this paper explores how NLLST came to occupy this important position in the UK’s Cold War scientific information landscape. It also shows how individual librarians and information officers working in special libraries across government, industry and academia collaborated to make Russian language material accessible to the scientific community during the Cold War era.
Event title