National Central Library (England and Wales)

It was a tutorial system and a scholarly library for working people who were not connected to an academic institution.

The library was incorporated by royal charter and maintained by annual grants from the Department of Education and Science, local authorities, university and special libraries, adult education bodies and public trusts.

The library was the national centre for the inter-lending of books (other than fiction and students' textbooks) and periodicals to readers in all parts of the British Isles through the libraries to which they belonged.

Inter-lending was also carried on to and from foreign libraries through their national centres.

Other tasks it undertook were the establishment of a union catalogue of Slavonic books and periodicals in British libraries and the production of the British Union Catalogue of Periodicals.