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The growth of CAS‐IAS (current alerting service — individual article supply) services in the 1990s has not delivered the rapid benefits expected by information practitioners. This article focuses on the alerting aspects of CAS‐IAS services and documents the results of a series of surveys carried out at a UK cancer research institute over a four year period. By the first quarter of 1997, in over 50% of cases in a sample group of titles the shelf issue was more current, or as current, as the alerting services. The article also includes a mid‐1997 overview of the CAS‐IAS services available and lists factors to be considered by information practitioners in any evaluation of the document delivery aspect of CAS‐IAS services. The conclusion is that the monitoring of service developments and their performance will have to continue for the foreseeable future.

Apart from some minor powers that occupied Egypt, the major ones that occupied Egypt and altered the course of its history include the Ottoman Empire, France, and Britain. The imperial powers entered Egypt because of different motives and drivers. However, none of the reasons was directed at understanding the history of Egypt, the achievements of their past rulers, and crafting a better path for future prosperity from this understanding. They exploited the Egyptian resources, built their home economy, and left Egypt as an exporter of semi-finished goods and an importer of finished goods. Three primary motives were outstanding, among others. The first was to obtain revenue through the imposition of a tax, the second was to protect their home economy by having a continuous supply of raw materials and exportation of finished goods, and the third was to protect the strategic position of Egypt on the trade route to India and other raw material suppliers. Their reluctance to leave the country led to branding some nationalists as unfriendly and preference for those considered moderate nationalists who would be satisfied with superficial power. In contrast, the real power resided in the colonial lords. The imperialists were forced out, leaving a divided country stripped of its past glory. The book chapter discussed the occupation of the colonial lords and what they achieved. The conclusion was that Egypt was not better through its occupation by the colonial lords. The country lost its root in the past, which could have been the foundation for future prosperity.

Ejournals, in all their guises, are here to stay and as such they become another resource that requires management, maintenance and resourcing. Integrating this new resource into the library collection and an existing catalogue presents its own range of problems, some of which will be explored within the context of the University of Liverpool experience.

The access versus holdings debate has been one of the “hot topics” within the information world for some time, and the performance of document delivery services is an integral part of the discussion. This article focuses on work currently being undertaken at the University of Liverpool to investigate and evaluate existing and future document supply services. Reference is made to related literature, the background to the pilot projects is explained, and the criteria utilised for the inclusion of services are propounded. A detailed evaluation of the following services is included: BL’s inside, BODOS, Ei Text from Elsevier Engineering Information Inc., LAMDA and UnCover. Preliminary results are reported. The conclusion to date is that, in their current from, document delivery services cannot be seen as a panacea for resolving the holdings versus access debate.

UKRR is an innovative programme that ensures that copies of print journals remain available to the research community indefinitely. At the same time the aim is to free up substantial and valuable space in academic libraries, resulting in significant cost savings. This paper aims to provide an update on this groundbreaking initiative – one year into Phase 2. It seeks to outline the processes and workflows which underpin UKRR and to report early findings.

A descriptive account of the UKRR process and methodology is provided, indicating how they support the programme's overarching principles.

It is still early days in Phase 2 of UKRR, but already interesting data are being gathered. These will inform further analyses.

UKRR is a high profile national programme that is attracting a lot of interest both nationally and internationally. The paper documents a practical example of a shared services initiative in the UK.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature concerning interlending and document supply and related matters.

The approach is based on the reading of over 150 journals as well as monographs, reports and websites.

Resistance to the Big Deals for journals is still growing – in particular because of the current budget cuts that are hitting libraries badly. A number of articles from around the world indicate that document supply is still alive and kicking.

The paper represents a useful source of information for librarians and others interested in document supply and related matters such as resource sharing and open access.

In VINE 113 and 114 our authors look at library services on the Web, with half a dozen case studies of excellent applications.

This paper aims to provide a case study of the development of UK Research Reserve (UKRR): a partnership between the UK higher education sector and the British Library. The first of its kind in the UK as well as internationally, UK Research Reserve has helped its members de‐duplicate low‐use journals and release shelf space, as well as retain access to research material. UKRR is currently under review to determine a sustainable model if public funding becomes unavailable. This paper describes the journey UKRR has taken so far.

Research methods adopted can be categorised into two main groups of activities: information gathering (desk research, survey and interviews); and information analysis and synthesis (literature, data, documentation).

Through the case study of UKRR, the author identifies challenges and issues faced by research libraries, as well as the whole HE sector. This paper presents values and synergies UKRR has created for its members and beyond. It also shares UKRR's journey in identifying a sustainable business model beyond its current phase.

The author reviewed some second‐hand data to present a broader picture of challenges the HE sector is facing. Most data and documentation that support the other sections of the paper are first‐hand, and have been generated by UKRR's team.

This paper aims to explore the reasons for and the subsequent longer-term impact of the closure of the Barlinnie Special Unit (BSU).

The paper is both descriptive, providing an overview of the work of the BSU, and conceptual in that it argues that the limits of “prisoner rehabilitation” are observed in the closure of the BSU, which sounds a warning for other penal therapeutic communities and what it means to operate effectively.

The BSU which assisted long-term, difficult and violent prisoners moderate their prison behaviour and then to live non-offending lives, lost the confidence of government ministers and officials, as well as senior prison managers and, seemingly, the public, so closed after being in operation for 21 years. The impact of this has been that the Scottish Prison Service has not introduced, or attempted to introduce, a similar regime for managing and treating violent and disruptive prisoners.

There are important lessons to be learned from the BSU experience for all who manage and work in specialist, prison therapeutic units or within prison therapeutic regimes. This includes balancing the therapeutic elements of the regime, which may involve engaging in practices which are outside the norm for custodial establishments, with those establishments’ security and operational requirements, so as to not to create a disconnect between addressing offending behaviour and maintaining expected standards of wider prison conduct.

While there have been previous evaluations of the BSU, the longer-term impact has neither been previously considered and nor has the unit’s closure been considered from a penal philosophical perspective.