Planning Document Access: Options and Opportunities

Citation

Fourie, I. (2001), "Planning Document Access: Options and Opportunities", The Electronic Library, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 116-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2001.19.2.116.2

Scholarly communication is currently a very dynamic field marked by rapidly hanging processes and new role players such as Web‐based aggregator services. Document access, in which traditional methods of access and interlibrary loans can be supplemented or replaced with electronic document delivery on demand and networked availability of full‐text material, can play an important role in scholarly communication in the academic environment. To plan and facilitate such document access, library managers should, however, have a clear idea of the issues at hand, the various options and scenarios, and how these affect them and their library users:

It is vital, in such a dynamic environment, that those involved have some common understanding of the issues they are trying to address and, in a small way, this book is an attempt to lay out some of those issues (p. vii).

This book is based on the work of the British eLib project FIDDO (Focussed Investigation of Document Delivery Options) that commenced in November 1995 and was completed in December 1999. The project’s main aim was to disseminate reliable and objective data to enable library and information managers to make informed decisions about the feasibility, selection and implementation of document delivery services within their own institutions.

In sharing the findings of the FIDDO project, the authors focus strongly on the fact that neither academic researchers, nor libraries as academic institutions, function in isolation or have only a single role to play: “researchers are not just researchers” (p. 45) and “libraries are not just libraries” (p. 105). The book is divided into four parts. The first part of the book deals with the context of the book. Chapter one starts off with an explanation of document delivery and academic library management. The factors influencing document delivery (e.g. increased availability of technology and increased interest in distance learning), as well as background information on research projects influencing document delivery are considered. The second chapter gives a thorough overview of the FIDDO project and the methods followed.

Following the context of the book, chapters three, four and five deal with the context of the academic researcher. These chapters concern the importance of the discipline in which researchers work, the impact of the local organisation and the infrastructure and documents to which they have access.

Library managers and the decisions they take are also influenced by context. Chapters six and seven therefore address administrative and budgetary matters, while chapter eight deals with the complicated issues of copyright and document access management. These are all issues impacting on the context in which library managers operate.

Part four includes chapters nine, ten and eleven and concerns library management. It covers the FIDDO project and academic library management, the implications outside academic research and the document access research and development agenda.

Throughout, the book draws heavily on the empirical work done by FIDDO. Although it addresses the issue of document provision from the library manager’s point of view, there is a very strong emphasis on users’ perspectives.

This is a well‐bound, hardcover book with a detailed 11‐page index. No typographical errors were spotted. What really struck me about the book is the clear, uncluttered, easy‐to‐follow style of writing. All facets of the topic are clearly explained and arguments follow logically on each other: even a novice to the topic will be able to follow the discussion.

The book is based on a research project in the UK, which may limit its value outside the UK. The final chapter, however, briefly considers developments in North America and Australia. The authors feel that the UK situation is not unique; this correlates with my own impressions: the findings concerning researchers, for example, sounded very familiar to my own (South African) situation.

The book is therefore highly recommended as essential reading to anyone in the UK involved in the management of hybrid library services – especially in academic institutions. It should, however, also be of value to anyone seeking to understand the complexities of information and document access in different contexts, and for library managers from other countries and other library types. Although not a textbook, it should certainly also be brought to the attention of students in library and information science. It might also be useful if the authors can bring the findings about the researchers and the context in which they work to the attention of academics. This should help them to gain a better understanding of their work, its impact, and how it may be affected by document delivery services.