TY - JOUR AU - Peter A. Biskup AB - In 1932 the then Commonwealth National Librarian, Kenneth Binns, conceived the idea of a National Library of Economics, Finance and Commerce, which was to form a part of the Commonwealth National Library and was to be financed by a one-off grant from Australian banks. Nothing came of it, but the episode is of more than passing interest: it reminds us, first, that the so-called information explosion is not a post-1945 phenomenon, and second, that information is not intrinsically valuable but becomes such only when someone wants it. BT - Australian Academic & Research Libraries IS - June LA - English N2 - In 1932 the then Commonwealth National Librarian, Kenneth Binns, conceived the idea of a National Library of Economics, Finance and Commerce, which was to form a part of the Commonwealth National Library and was to be financed by a one-off grant from Australian banks. Nothing came of it, but the episode is of more than passing interest: it reminds us, first, that the so-called information explosion is not a post-1945 phenomenon, and second, that information is not intrinsically valuable but becomes such only when someone wants it. PY - 1989 SP - 53 EP - 70 T2 - Australian Academic & Research Libraries TI - A Library that Never Was: The National Research Library of Economics, Finance and Banking VL - 20 ER -