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This article is a preliminary attempt to discuss and construct an experimental library user interface, connecting different libraries in such a way that each library can search other library catalogues using its own classification codes. The second focus of the article is to develop a viable method to locate specific subject clusters in a library catalogue. The classification codes need not be uniform, and the user interface allows for natural language searching. The technique used is the construction of a concordance table between different library catalogues' subject codes on the bibliographic level, enabling the system to determine relative links between different subject codes. The concordance is established on the basis of shared titles.

Z39.50 is an information retrieval protocol. It has generated much interest but is so far little deployed in UK systems and services. This article gives a functional overview of the protocol itself and the standards background, describes some European initiatives which make use of it, and outlines various issues to do with its future use and acceptance. It is argued that Z39.50 is a crucial building block of future distributed information systems but that it needs to be considered alongside other protocols and services to provide useful applications.

The purpose of this paper is to provide preliminary results of the 2015 international interlending survey conducted by the ALA RUSA STARS International Interlibrary Loan Committee and compare these results to those of the survey conducted in 2011.

An international survey was developed using Qualtrics to both gather and analyze the results received after the survey was distributed via listservs and personal contacts.

The 2015 survey’s results generally showed similarities to those in 2011 with most participants both borrowing and lending materials internationally. The differences between the 2011 and 2015 survey are highlighted as are barriers to international interlending.

This study illustrates the most recent survey of international interlending practices with comparison to previous studies and will yield potential methods and activities for improving resource sharing globally.