Document Delivery beyond 2000

Citation

Morgan, S. (1999), "Document Delivery beyond 2000", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 8, pp. 413-424. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.8.413.2

These are the proceedings of an international conference held at the British Library, at St Pancras, London, over two days in September 1998. The publishers are to be commended for their speed given the quality of the final output. Issues for discussion at the conference were identified by means of a closed e‐mail list, set up specifically for the event, at Loughborough University. The structure of the resulting document reflects the two strands which emerged from the e‐mail communication. Each strand represents a different way of looking at document delivery: the first concentrates on the role of people in the process and the second views the infrastructure needed for effective document delivery. Following the introductory chapter (MacDougall) which follows the editors’ introduction, the proceedings are divided into these two strands, with eight chapters in each. Hanson’s paper considers the management issues in adopting (instant) journal article delivery services in British academic libraries. He touches on a number of important issues including access options, collection development implications, user issues and behaviour.

In the next contribution, two of the editors (Morris and Davies) explore the growth of digitised information and the three “justs” – just‐in‐time, just‐in‐case and (the lesser known) just‐when‐you‐like. They draw on data acquired from the eLib FIDDO project (focused investigation of document delivery options). Two models are developing for electronic journals, according to Smith, in the next paper, but which will eventually dominate will not matter because of technological advances. The first model more or less replicates the printed word while, in the second, the publisher controls all routes to both metadata and full‐text. Continuing the theme of collaboration, competition or convergence, Walker explores secondary data sources such as those provided by Silverplatter. The importance of the use of standards and common protocols is highlighted. Morrow argues persuasively in his paper that services which integrate the functions of bibliographic databases and full‐text article delivery are likely to prove the most useful and popular in the future. The paper by Jacobs and Morris returns us to the FIDDO project and analyses interview data provided by academics and researchers on their use of certain models of end‐user‐oriented electronic document delivery. The final two papers in the first part of the proceedings look at measuring user satisfaction with document delivery services and how management researchers use journal literature respectively.

The second half of the volume considers the issues involved in creating better document delivery systems. The first two short papers cover the history and operation of the LAMDA project (originally known as London and Manchester Document Access), a document delivery/resource‐sharing service which began as an eLib project. These are followed by a contribution from The Netherlands about the devlopment of DocUTrans whose aim was “to automate the document delivery process as far as possible, decreasing delivery times of photocopies of articles to the end‐user”. Consecutive papers by Wing and Cornish address some of the legal ramifications of document delivery, and in particular, issues of copyright. The final three contributions cover the technical infrastructure. The first (Wells and Amos) takes us to Australia and describes two national projects for interlibrary lending and resource sharing. The penultimate paper by Larbey is another example of the valuable contribution made by the eLib projects – this time, EDDIS (electronic document delivery the integrated solution). The author explores the potential of networked systems to improve managed access to remote document stores. And finally, Jackson offers a view of interlibrary lending (ILL) from the USA. She concentrates on the implications of standards implementation on the systems used by libraries for managing ILL transactions.

Although this whole area is one that can sometimes be suffused with acronyms, jargon and arcane terminology, the editors have thankfully kept this to a minimum. This is a well produced and readable collection of papers which offers a welcome overview of a complex subject.