Editorial

Citation

McGrath, M. (2010), "Editorial", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 38 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2010.12238daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Interlending & Document Supply, Volume 38, Issue 4

In this issue

I cannot be the only person who feels that ILL and document supply are often invisible, and where they are noticed they are dismissed. Inaccurate and misleading cost comparisons with other services are rife. Usage studies rarely focus on low- and no-use journal titles and even less on articles. (See my whinge in this issue’s Literature Review.) However, one encouraging sign is that more reports on user behaviour are noting the gap between discovery and delivery. Even the largest library cannot purchase the keys to open the electronic doors of publishers which block access to material that is easily discovered via Google and Google Scholar. In addition, references to non-digitised material require more traditional means of access such as ILL and document supply. The Literature Review in this issue notes the recent OCLC/JISC “meta” report, which summarises 12 user studies that highlight this as one of the most important issues facing libraries and their users. Very fast delivery of articles to the user’s desktop must surely play an important part in any library’s portfolio. This is especially so, given the budget cuts that are now being imposed on libraries – see in particular, Throumoulos (2010) on unmediated document delivery.

And in this issue we range across the world with articles from India, Iran, Serbia, Croatia, Hong Kong, South Korea and China.

From India the issue of union catalogues to facilitate resource sharing is of the first importance in that vast country; SpaceCat – a space science online serials union catalogue – and its role in document supply is described. From Iran a study of six academic libraries shows the poor performance in their document supply services and highlights the need for improvement. A presentation at the ILDS conference in Hanover in 2009 has been worked up into a paper that describes the state of document supply in Serbia with particular emphasis on the impact of open access and DRM constraints. Another from the Czech Republic describes the role of the National Library in ILL and document supply; the impact of joining WorldCat is noted. Moving back across the world we have a study of resource sharing at eight academic libraries in Hong Kong which details how the use of a credit card type pass has improved efficiency dramatically by allowing users easy access to the libraries of other institutions. From China the academic reserve system, both electronic and non-electronic, is described and two surveys have generated many useful data on the present situation and future developments are identified. A study of open access in Korea contrasts the excellent software of repositories with the poor deposit rate – a situation familiar to others across the world. Recommendations are made to address this situation. And finally your editor writes the normal Literature Review, which is a little more “bilious” than normal!

Mike McGrathEditor