| Previous by Date |
Index by Date
Threaded Index |
Next by Date |
|---|---|---|
| Previous by Thread | Next by Thread |
ILL In An Electronic Age, Part 1
Before we begin any discussions on the future of interlibrary loan in an electronic environment, I thought it might be useful to take a look at past technological impacts on ILL, to impart a little perspective. I would imagine that the proliferation of photocopiers in libraries had a very profound effect on the "lending" of journal articles (if the provision of copies of articles that needn't be returned can be called "lending"). Prior to that, I'd imagine that the ILL process was very cumbersome when it came to journal articles, as the only way something could be loaned was to ship an entire issue, or even six months to a year's worth of issues in cases where the article in question was old enough for the issues to have been bound together for storage. ILL policies for journal articles must have been fairly restrictive prior to widespread use of photocopiers. The mass acceptance of fax machines in libraries also had an impact on the ILL of journal articles, in that the reduced turnaround time for delivery made the service more attractive. The development of electronic document delivery services such as UnCover also has had a major impact on ILL, removing even more obstacles by making possible patron- initiated delivery of journal articles (initially by fax, but now more and more delivered electronically to the desktop). I guess my point is that the concept of ILL in an electronic environment is maybe not such a radical paradigm shift, but rather the natural result of a process that has been evolving over the past 25 years or so. I'd suggest that perhaps the widespread use of photocopiers for ILL of journal articles was a much greater paradigm shift at the time than the concept of electronic ILL might be now. At any rate, publishers have survived these developments in the past, and libraries have continued to provide these services to other libraries. There doesn't seem to be any compelling reason why this can't continue to be the case, although the way these services are provided may change with time. Bernie Sloan ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bernie Sloan Senior Library Information Systems Consultant University of Illinois Office for Planning & Budgeting 338 Henry Administration Building 506 S. Wright Street Urbana, IL 61801 Phone: 217-333-4895 Fax: 217-333-6355 e-mail: bernies@uillinois.edu
|
http://www.library.yale.edu/liblicense © 1996, 1997 Yale University Library |
Please read our Disclaimer E-mail us with feedback |
|