THE BRITISH LIBRARY DOCUMENT SUPPLY CENTRE AS A TRANSLATIONS CENTRE

Abstract

This article examines the role of BLDSC's Translations Section as a focal point in the national and international availability of translations. BLDSC's collection of translations into English is amongst the largest in the world (the Translations Index has over half a million entries) and the Centre is the principal source both of translations and of information about them in the UK. Translations are acquired from all over the world, covering most languages, with the main source languages emerging as Russian, German, French and Japanese. On average, 40,000 requests are received by the Translations Section each year, the majority treating BLDSC as the first and only resort. 11% of these requests are from overseas. The Centre also publishes several major bibliographical tools in this field, and has close links with other national and international translations centres. It acts not only as a document supplier but also as an information provider in this specialized area.