Why is interlending and document supply still the ugly sister?

Abstract

We have moved on from the days when interlending was rare and inefficient, and considered as a privilege bestowed by libraries on users. Document supply, as it has increasingly become, is now very common, and in some developed countries excellent and speedy. Elsewhere there are national or institutional barriers, but even allowing for these many libraries make far less effort to supply material wanted by remote users than to their own, thus compounding delays suffered by the users. Electronic access is changing the situation for shorter items, but book lending is still poor. Libraries need to learn that users are users wherever they are, and users need to insist on a decent service.

Citation

Line, M.B. (2000), "Why is interlending and document supply still the ugly sister?", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 91-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/02641610010331552