Research is an important component of any discipline. This is because through research the frontiers of knowledge are extended. It provides the stimulus for the growth of a profession. For a profession to develop, research must be vigorously pursued and the findings regularly disseminated. The case of the library and information science (LIS) profession is unique, given the on-going debate as to whether LIS is a profession or a discipline or both. In such a situation it is expected that the research process will be complex. What is clear, however, is that LIS is a multidisciplinary profession that draws from library science, information science, publishing, computer science, communication science, engineering, management, etc. There is no doubt that it is a multifarious profession that needs to be constantly researched.

Following the ongoing review of the structure of the British Library in 2001-2002, all the humanities collections of the Library which previously had been split between two directorates (Special Collections and Readers Services & Collection Development) were united in a single new Directorate called Scholarship and Collections (S & C). Clive Field, previously Librarian and Director of Information Services at the University of Birmingham, was appointed Director of S & C in September 2001. The humanities collections forming the new Directorate have since been divided into three aggregations: British Collections, European and American Collections, and Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections (APAC). APAC comprises principally the former Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC), with the addition of the parts of the former Overseas English Section dealing with Asia, the Pacific and Africa.