This book, emphasizing service to users, includes 10 chapters by different librarians who have had experience as practitioners. Chapters are: (1) "Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins, or Technology and the Future of Library Service in Academic Libraries" (Michael Gorman); (2) "The Gateway Library: Rethinking Undergraduate Services" (Lizabeth A.…

Over time, the Regional Library Systems Act has succeeded in its aim to widen and improve access to library services for all Maine residents. Today, students in the smallest high schools and users of the most remote public libraries can plug into the resources of the largest public libraries in the state and draw on the services of their…

Examines the Amazon.com online bookstore as a blueprint for designing the world's largest library. Topics include selection; accessibility and convenience; quality of Web sites and search tools; personalized service; library collection development, including interlibrary loan; library catalogs and catalog records; a circulation system; costs;…

Discusses early developments in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) interlibrary loan, including use of OCLC for verification and request transmittal, improved service to patrons, internal cost control, affect on work flow and borrowing patterns. Describes advances in OCLC, including internationalization, electronic information access,…

Describes three projects implemented by the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale's library that are designed to empower the patron: (1) patron-initiated borrowing; (2) Interlibrary Loan Link on FirstSearch databases; and (3) implementation of Web-based interlibrary loan request forms. Explains the role of institutional support and…

The Draper Laboratory Library created the Draper Gopher in response to the following factors: library downsizing, the computer services department's changing role, customer needs, and developments in technology affecting the information environment. Results of its implementation include user-focused reference services; increased interlibrary loan…

Illustrates the ethical dilemmas of library collection development through three specific examples related to scholarly communication, including the ongoing effort by publishers to use licensing contracts to abolish interlibrary loans for information in electronic format. Considers information needs of clients versus optimizing public access to…

These articles address the core values of librarianship, focusing on democracy and public libraries; equity of access to information, including building collections, circulation policies, interlibrary loan, and intellectual property and licensing; intellectual freedom, including rating systems for various media; and library service in the light of…

Explores the question of the cost effectiveness of ownership versus access to low-use serials using data collected during a use study at the State University of New York at Albany and from a national cost study. Discussion includes interlibrary loan, document delivery services, and the impact of cancellations on user's needs. (LRW)

A survey of the 13 Indiana state depository libraries was conducted in 1989 to determine the state of the state documents in these libraries, which had not been done since 1969. Indiana passed a law in 1973 to establish the Indiana State Document Depository System. All except one responded to a questionnaire which covered access, maintenance,…

Describes the restructuring of a traditional Interlibrary Loan Department at the Auraria Library, University of Colorado at Denver, into Information Delivery/Interlibrary Loan (ID/ILL) and its move to Collection Development Services. Discusses cost-effectiveness of ownership versus access; the collection philosophy; and components of the ID/ILL…

Examines the role of commercial document delivery. Discusses interlibrary loan (ILL); access versus ownership decision making; degree of use and patron use of commercial document delivery; and use of library materials funds. Concludes that document delivery will not totally replace ownership or ILL, but that it is becoming more important because…

Discusses library resource sharing. Highlights include access to information, document delivery, interlibrary loan, and the social, economic, and technological complexities of new mechanisms; and traditional roles of libraries that provide both opportunities for cooperation and paradoxes for the continuation of selection, archiving, and…

Describes a program of national collection building designed to provide universal availability of publications in the Federal Republic of Germany in the context of historical traditions, the development of a cooperative acquisition program, financial support, and methodological aspects of the system. (CLB)

This study tested assumptions about self-sufficiency of academic library collections and the paradigm shift to providing access to information stored elsewhere. Inter-library borrowing statistics of Australian libraries were correlated with collection size. The study concluded that collection self-sufficiency is a fallacy and that the information…