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The French academic libraries directors association (ADBU) launched and updated a European comparative study on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in Academic Libraries over the 2013–2017 period. The purpose of this paper is to briefly present the ADBU initiative; its main focus is how to use these figures to ground decision making process, notably so as to better assess the contribution of libraries in student success or research performance.

As universities and academic libraries are facing research evolutions and teaching/learning new models, a strong increase in students’ number is observed everywhere in Europe. This trend will most probably continue in the coming years and the pressure on academic libraries will grow. That is why the French ADBU took the initiative to launch a European comparative study on key and performance indicators in Academic Libraries over the 2013–2016 period. Data were updated in 2019, covering 2017 figures and including additional countries.

Thanks to the European partners and the help of a consultant firm, the first observations were updated with the 2017 figures and the country scope grew broader. Libraries buildings and equipment, space and seats per student, opening days and hours, frequentation rate, library services, users training, staff per student/documentary budgets/total expenditure, staff training, documentation loans/consultation/downloads: these KPI are gathered and can be compared in both relative and absolute value.

The ADBU initiative is unique, results are widely shared.

Two French professional associations (ADBU and AURA) organised the first nation‐wide meeting on interlibrary loan and document supply in France. This paper aims to provide a synthesis of some major communications and debate.

The article is based on the first nationwide meeting on interlibrary loan and document supply in France.

The first session led to a debate that was rich and controversial and covered several aspects, from the relationship between acquisition and supply policy, the role of the national catalogue SUDOC, the impact of staff reductions on service quality, the limits of resource rationalization, supply of electronic copies and the cooperation with the COUPERIN consortium. For more than one reason, the Montpellier conference was a historic meeting. Some aspects that were a little bit “underexposed” during this first meeting will certainly gain more importance in the future, as, for example, the electronic delivery and related legal aspects (copyright, intellectual property), the international library service networking and the closer cooperation between some major French suppliers.

This article is a useful source of information for librarians and others interested in document supply in France

One of the aims of the LIBER strategic plan 2009‐2012 was to stimulate the use of LibQUAL+ by European research libraries. The purpose of this study is to investigate how far this initiative has been successful.

All 385 LIBER libraries were invited to complete an online survey, mounted on Survey Monkey. The questionnaire was meant for all libraries, whether or not they performed a user survey during the last five years and, if so, whether or not they used LibQUAL + as the survey instrument.

The study shows that the use of LibQUAL+ in Europe is widespread and that there is a great potential for further growth. LibQUAL+'s strong areas are the ease of administering and opportunities for benchmarking. A weak area is the user unfriendliness: 50 per cent of the libraries having experience with LibQUAL+ find the survey difficult to complete for the participants. Carrying out a LibQUAL+ survey has great practical implications. More than 75 per cent of the respondents took measures to improve their performance on weak areas or to promote their existing services better among the user community. About one third established new services.

The results point at the need to improve the user friendliness of LibQUAL+.

This is the first study that covers the experience of European research libraries with LibQUAL+ on a broad scale.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the evolution of document supply from traditional print copy delivery to a modern service of resource discovery and secure electronic supply.

The study is based on evidence from empirical data at INIST, as well as enquiries and case studies from other suppliers and customers.

Four topics are presented: the customers' needs, the use of new technologies in the front‐ and back‐office, resource sharing and networking on the national and international level, and the negotiation of copyright agreements with publishers.

Based on evidence, an overall synthesis is given on significant developments, providing outlines of the future of document supply.

This study proposes a framework for performance measurement of library consortia services by implementing the indicators listed in ISO 11620. The framework is validated by using real data from HEAL-Link, the national consortium of Greek academic and research libraries to calculate the indicators.

The paper reports on the related work regarding the services consortia offer to their members and the known methods and tools for assessing consortia services; the HEAL-Link case study, the aggregation and handling of data, is presented; ISO 11620 performance indicators for HEAL-Link services are calculated, and the results are discussed in terms of what was learnt- about the consortium, about measuring consortia services performance, and about the standard.

ISO 11620 could be used to measure performance for assessing consortia services. The performance indicators’ results reflect the two major events (mergers and COVID pandemic) that took place during the time of the study. ISO 11620 offers a basic insight that could be well complemented with other tools and standards.

The current study suggests that a widely accepted, easily applied, benchmarking ISO standard could be used to measure common consortia services’ performance, thus contributing to consortia assessment.

The Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (INIST) is a service unit of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). A leading integrated scientific and technical information center, INIST provides the major public research and academic institutions as well as the socio‐economic sector with resources and services designed to improve dissemination of and access to international scientific and technical information. Committed to the new information and communication technologies, INIST offers a whole range of access services to scientific and technical information on the Internet. The article highlights the place and the future of document supply in this context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential and adoption of closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance-based security system (hereafter “CCTV”) for enhancing the security of library materials in academic libraries of universities (central, state, deemed and private) and prestigious institutions such as Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management in a developing country, i.e. India. The study also overviewed the CCTV policies of the studied libraries of universities/institutions as they relate to the ethical aspects of the surveillance system.

Structured questionnaire was designed and distributed among librarians of 24 academic libraries covering each zone of India in October 2019 in both physical and online manner. All 24 filled-in questionnaires were collected personally and online by the investigator were found valid eliciting a response rate of 100%. All the 24 filled-in questionnaires were included in the analysis of the interpretation of data. The response to 18 questions was analyzed in the form of tables and figures using descriptive statistical methods.

The study reveals that librarians’ found CCTV useful for security by controlling theft, unethical losses and missing items. It also helped to curb mutilation and vandalism, procurement of the rare material via the latest camera devices and night vision capturing, besides improving the service efficiency of the patron, as well as staff. The quantitative study surveyed security professionals to assess how each university/institution developed, deployed and integrated CCTV policies related to securing video data, safeguarding privacy and prevention of the potential for the unethical use of surveillance cameras. The analysis of the survey responses determined that more than 50% of the universities/institutions participating had a written CCTV policy. Further, library professionals find that the future of libraries lies in a CCTV system, so the cost should be brought down to improve return on investment by the mass adoption of this technology in a developing country such as India.

The findings of the study showed that the potential uses of CCTV in Indian libraries are slow compared to that of the libraries of developed countries and some of the developing countries. Many of the CCTV policies that universities/institutions did have failed to include mandated training of personnel or provisions ensuring that their policies remained up-to-date. It is suggested that universities and institutions understudy should realize the benefits of CCTV systems and incorporate-related updated tools in the security and multi-purpose uses in the libraries to enhance the services for the users and security for the materials or collections.

The paper includes implications for libraries and their professionals to approach CCTV systems with ethical considerations for procurement of library collections, which help to detect mutilation/theft, observe the misbehavior of users, as well as staff and deployment, should not be decided merely while balancing security demands.

The study is significant because it represents one of the earliest works to shed light on the current level of the use of CCTV system by librarians of studied libraries of universities/institutes in developing country such as India and how they are providing CCTV-based security and services, which are currently in its primitive nature. The study also suggested that select libraries are required to weigh up and balance many competing desires, demands and objectives.

This paper provides a concise overview of the various applications/area and uses of CCTV system including its procedures during implementation, merits and demerits while using the system described above in libraries and recommends this technology to other libraries for faster and better services for their users and security to their library materials in today’s technological advancement. It provides a set of issues that should be considered before system adoption or deployment.

The article aims to provide an update on the situation of document supply and interlibrary loan in France in the first months of 2005. The main topic is open access to scientific information.

Describes open access, consortial purchasing, national archives, portals, electronic delivery and legal issues. Some evidence is given on the impact of electronic journals on document supply.

In the France of 2005, the legal environment and the (science, technical and medical) STM lobby continue to strengthen the position of rights‐holders (publishers) and to increase restrictions and prices of access to scientific information, fixing unrealistic copyright fees around a US$30 level.

Provides international interlending and document supply (ILDS) practitioners with intelligence on the current developments in interlending and document supply in France.