The existence of many of the more esoteric items in the Collection was revealed by consulting many of the specialised published Indices which list and classify all the contents of a wide variety of periodicals and journals - many of them obscure.

Until recently, the annual editions of such indices could be found in printed form in University and other libraries, where they could be consulted by anyone.

Now however, most of these have become electronic. Because the universities have to pay large sums to use them, they are available only with those with the right passwords, which are only issued to faculty members and effectively exclude independent researchers. Even if one could pay to join the faculty, this does not completely solve the problem, as no one university subscribes to all the available indices. This can only be resolved by the introduction of a scheme which allows individuals to buy a password which gave access across the board.

Another aspect of the problem came with the demise of the Nett Book Agreement.

When this was in force, libraries could obtain a blanket discount from the Publishers' Association on all books bought. It was a very well-kept secret that one condition of this was the right of public access to the whole bookstock.

With the collapse of the NBA, this no longer obtains and some institutional libraries are excluding members of the public altogether. Others restrict public access to a few days per year, charging quite high annual sums for a full read-only ticket.

This can only be redressed by the Government making public money conditional upon public access

On a personal level, I have another problem. Even if I could get into an electronic index, I am very ignorant of the proper procedures and protocols and could not feel certain that I had made a complete search.

If anyone out there can help, please get in touch and I will send you the details of my progress to date and what I have found out about the electronic versions.