Document delivery to developing countries

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a study of fill rate, time, and delivery costs for international document delivery from the Iowa State University Library to libraries and scholars in several developing countries. The overall results included a 73 per cent fill rate and a total turnaround time of 16.3 days. Per page fax charges were almost 12 times as expensive as air mail costs. International document delivery programmes will need to have the ability to handle a variety of communication methods. In addition, these libraries will need to examine several philosophical issues arising from interlibrary co‐operation with partners in developing countries as they determine their place in the complex economic, political and organisational structures related to international document supply.

Citation

Dobson, C. and Pedersen, W.A. (1998), "Document delivery to developing countries", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 3-9. https://doi.org/10.1108/02641619810369635