Official Publications in Britain

Book excerpt: The pattern of official publishing in Britain continues to change. This second edition aims to present a concise and up-to-date overview of the range of current official publishing. It is intended for practising librarians, students in departments of library and information studies and users of official publications to help them to discern the pattern of official publishing today. Her Majesty's Stationary Office is the largest single general publisher of official material, but its output represents only a small proportion of the total. The great majority of official publications are published directly by government departments, public bodies and local authorities. Despite advances in bibliographic control, some of these publications are still relatively little known and underused. Developments in electronic publishing have begun to have a significant impact in the offical publications field with online and CD-ROM databases becoming more common.