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BBC Libraries and Archives have been using the Lancaster ILL System for four years. This article describes BBC interloans practices and how the automated system has been implemented. The main body of the text highlights features which have been particularly valuable for BBC requirements. Several perceived disadvantages are indicated and some expected (or perhaps hoped for) developments are listed.

A ZBB exercise was carried out at Aston University Library in 1984‐85. Though no experience was available, the exercise proved useful in analysing in detail all the library tasks and assigning costs to each. Two other important factors were: a clearly defined development policy, and acceptable performance indicators.

Access to Libraries and Information Services Public libraries are open to all and it is not necessary to make any special arrangements to use them, although if you will be registering as a member for loan services (there is no need to register for reference use) the library may need proof of your home address. Most of the services (with the probable exception of online services) are free of charge. To use those libraries and information services of which you are already a member, such as a professional institution, no appointment or notification is needed. Also, if you have a degree or a diploma from a university, polytechnic or college you may be entitled to return and use the library at any later time. Probably you will also be able to use the full range of the library's services, including loans and inter‐library loans.

The annual reports of British university libraries all tell similar stories in the period under review: each year was described as a period of financial constraint, with hopes expressed that future years would bring an improvement. This never proved to be the case as on the whole the situation gradually worsened, the only respite being occasional periods of level funding.

REFLEXION, the new system from Fretwell‐Downing, is a fully integrated library system which incorporates the latest technological developments, such as open systems, hardware independence, and external interfaces, and which aims to be flexible enough to meet the different needs of different types of libraries.

The Library of the University of Surrey serves an overall university membership of some 4,000 comprising nearly 2,900 students of whom 570 are postgraduates; 300 academic staff and 950 non‐academic personnel. The bookstock, excluding periodicals, amounts to 80,000 volumes with an average 10,000 new additions each year. The Library is open seven days a week during term: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.–10 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. and Sunday, 2 p.m.–6 p.m. Plans have already been formulated to extend vacation opening hours which are, at present, Monday‐Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Books may be borrowed for the entire vacation period. Annual issues, which increased by 30% last year, are nearing 110, 000 and daily loans average around 400. 10,000 books are on loan at any one time. Students are allowed to borrow four books at a time and there is no limit on loans to staff who are, nevertheless, notified when their quota exceeds twenty. The loan period for students is fourteen days and for staff one term.

In the fall of 1982 the RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) computer system, which serves the Research Libraries Group (RLG) incorporated a new interlibrary loan subsystem which has the potential to facilitate fast and efficient interlibrary loans among members of RLG. At present, RLG consists of 24 general or fully participating members — all of which are major research libraries including the New York Public Library — and 13 special libraries such as the Museum of Modern Art. As one of its primary functions, RLG maintains a benignly liberal interlibrary loan policy for general member institutions. Not only will these members lend the same materials as they circulate to their own patrons; in many cases such normally forbidden interlibrary loan items as rare books and reference books may be lent (providing of course the lender is agreeable). And, of special importance to library patrons, photocopying, in most cases, is provided free of charge as long as the request is reasonable and within copyright restrictions. It must be stressed however that each member library is still responsible for maintaining a collection commensurate with the needs of its patrons. Thus, RLG is not meant to be a substitute for collection development of any member institution but rather to expand the availability of materials to libraries within the system.

First, it is necessary to define some of these terms: The Oxford English Dictionary defines to evaluate as ‘to work out the value of, to give it a quantitative expression; to find numerical expression for’, and evaluation as ‘the action of appraising or valuing, a calculation or statement of value’. Times of economic restraint began in the latter 1970s, but I shall concentrate on the 1980s, the period which coincides with my period of office as the manager of a university library.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by the Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for the articles rests with the British Library Board and opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1984 to VINE is: £23 for UK subscribers, £26 to overseas subscribers (including airmail delivery). Second and subsequent copies to the same address are charged at £14 for UK and £16 for overseas. VINE is available in either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.

Most librarians associate the phrase ‘library automation’ with a computerised system to be used as a tool in the daily work within a library. Because data processing and telecommunication are being more commonly used for collection, storage and distribution of published information, the meaning of the phrase ‘library automation’ will have to change.