National planning of networked services for libraries

The experience I want to discuss is that of higher education in the United Kingdom. It is generic to that sector, but as a byproduct medicine has benefitted as some of the examples I will cite should demonstrate. It is perhaps all too typical of the way in which all societies are organised that the planning is vertical by sector rather than horizontal by discipline. As a result we can only look with envy at the National Library of Medicine in the United States and hope that at some point more rational attitudes will prevail and the civil servants of the different ministries and the libraries of the professional bodies will adopt a more structured approach to planning. That said the success of centrally planned higher education in the United Kingdom is stunning with literally tens of thousands of staff and students enjoying the benefit of a planned range of services. There is clearly a mood to take advantage of the networks as a way of linking the various medical anmd health sectors together.