DESIDOC started functioning in 1958 as Scientific Information Bureau (SIB). It was a division of the Defence Science Laboratory (DSL) which is presently called Defence Science Centre. The DRDO library which had its beginning in 1948 became a division of SIB in 1959. In 1967 SIB was reorganised with augmented activities and named Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC). It still continued to function under the administrative control of DSL. DESIDOC became a self-accounting unit and one of the laboratories of DRDO on 29 July 1970. The Centre was functioning in the main building of Metcalfe House, a landmark in Delhi and a national monument. In August 1988 it moved to its newly built five-storeyed building in the same Metcalfe House complex. Since it became a self-accounting unit, DESIDOC has been functioning as a central information resource for DRDO. It provides S&T information, based on its library and other information resources, to the DRDO headquarters, and its various laboratories at various places in India.