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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the new Technical Report ISO 28118 “Performance measures for national libraries”.

The paper reports on the mission and main tasks of national libraries as defined by the technical report, and describes some 30 performance indicators including indicators that are specifically relevant to national libraries. The paper also explains the process by which indicators were selected and tested.

The rationale for the establishment of a new standard is examined and perspectives offered on its envisaged application and further development.

This paper gives an informative preview of the Technical Report which, at the time of writing, is in the process of being published. It serves as a useful introduction to the report for those who may wish to adopt the standard in future, and whilst primarily aimed at national libraries it is potentially relevant for regional libraries with similar tasks and missions.

To study the construction and planning of the library service facility system based on public digital culture teaching in international cultural metropolises, the main body of resources construction, channels, selection criteria, construction standards, user service policies, service methods and service objects of the National Digital Library of Russia were analyzed. The construction foundation, policy support and digital resource construction of the Chinese and Russian national digital libraries were compared. The results showed that the problem of digital copyright was solved while the library community was constructing digital resources according to the existing rules. Therefore, this method has certain implications for the construction of digital libraries in metropolitan areas in China.

The paper briefly reviewed the characteristics and functions of national libraries in general. It then gave an overview of the National Library of Nigeria (NLN) with special reference to the laws that established it and its functions. The survey was narrowly focused on the present state of the Bauchi State Branch of the National Library of Nigeria. It was found that this branch library is not fully equipped and funded to serve as a bibliographical centre and clearing house to the State. It has also not been effective in providing advisory service on library development and organisation to departments and agencies in the State. Finally, several recommendations were made to improve upon the present level of performance of the NLN Bauchi Branch.

Describes the genesis, development and operation of the Finnish National Repository Library which was opened in 1989. The characteristics of the repository are: acting on a national scale, serving all libraries in the country, and active participation and co‐operation in interlending and cataloguing. The original objective of the library was to promote inter‐library co‐operation by arranging a national storage and interlending centre for less‐used library material. Discusses the potential of the repository library for assisting the library system in the new economic situation, where public funding has substantially diminished. The areas where the repository could broaden its functions are legal deposit, co‐operative cataloguing to union databases, and the national collection policy; and assisting subject responsibility libraries in acquisition co‐operation and in national interlending.

This research aims at conducting a survey of web‐based services offered by Asian national libraries.

To do this, 23 accessible and English language web sites of national libraries in Asia were studied. Direct observation and a checklist including six general services were used for data collection and data evaluation, respectively. In order to determine the detailed services provided by national library web sites, five web sites of the greatest and historical national libraries in the world with appropriate geographical distribution were taken into account.

National Library of Singapore had the first rank in providing its services via a web site for users and was the only national library in Asia that provides more than half of its services (52.29 per cent) via the web site. The national libraries of seven countries: Japan, Malaysia, China, Iran, Israel, Seri Lanka, and Kyrgyzstan provide web‐based services in the range of 25‐50 per cent, respectively in descending order. And the web sites of Asian national libraries (ANLs) were far from ideal and optimal as an online service provider.

Asian National Libraries must use the web facilities for achievement of their target goals and provision of their information services in the best manner. It is also suggested that these libraries should make high use of both traditional library tools like bibliographies and web‐based ones including web forms, chat, videoconferences, and so forth to meet their goals and ideals.

This study provides a unique insight into the situation of provision of web‐based services offered by national libraries in selected Asian countries.

New Zealand is a small nation with experience and challenges in the area of interlending that have relevance for both developed and less developed countries. The National Library of New Zealand operates in a political environment that is committed to ensuring effective control and value for money of public expenditure. Employing both well tested professional strategies and the opportunities opened up by new technologies, the National Library is committed to maximising national access to library resources through facilitating interlibrary lending and document delivery. In mid‐1999 the National Library replaced the automated interlibrary lending module of its national bibliographic utility with a fully standards‐compliant facility. Central to this system is the automated national union catalogue and library directory service maintained by the National Library. The Library also has a history of working in partnership with the library profession to manage a national resource‐sharing cooperative.

The paper seeks to describe the changes in user expectations for access to material at the Swiss National Library and the different ways it seeks to provide access information through resource sharing.

The paper describes briefly the Swiss National Library's background and mandate, its digitisation work and access to these resources.

The Swiss National Library is developing services, both e‐services and non‐e services, to support the information requirements of its users.

This is one of the few papers to provide an up‐to‐date account of developments at the Swiss National Library.

This paper aims to describe the role of the National Library of Australia in the Australian interlibrary loan environment, not just in terms of providing access to National Library collections through the document supply service, but also in providing infrastructure to support interlibrary loans across Australia.

The paper describes the various roles the National Library plays in the interlibrary loan/document delivery environment in Australia. It covers the document supply service and the Libraries Australia service, which provides the infrastructure that supports interlibrary loans/document delivery in Australia, and briefly reports on the evaluation of services currently being undertaken.

Providing access to library collections is complex and constantly changing. Client expectations are increasing, and libraries need to change traditional practices to meet user needs.

The paper covers the services offered by the National Library of Australia in supporting interlibrary loans/document delivery. Very few papers cover this topic.

This paper sets out to describe developments in Australian libraries and the national interlibrary loan and document delivery systems, in particular the outcomes of the Local Interlending and Document Delivery Administration Systems (LIDDAS) project. Australian libraries have had a highly cooperative approach to resource sharing for many years. ILL (Inter Library Loan) has become increasingly automated since the introduction of the online union catalogue in 1981 and the national interlending system in 1989. In 2004 interoperability was introduced, with 2006 developments in directories completing the national connected system.

Analysis is undertaken of the factors leading to a national approach, use of the automated solution by libraries and trends in use by end users.

Rapid and easy access to interlibrary lending has increased significantly through automation of local and national systems. While the overall number of loans and copies has not increased, the speed of delivery and efficiency of ILL has increased significantly.

By understanding the environment that led to a coordinated approach to automation by libraries in a variety of sectors, and evaluating the outcomes of the technological developments, this paper gives a basis for considering opportunities for future cooperative arrangements.

LIDDAS has stood the test of time as a highly original approach to providing access to the resources of the nation's libraries. This paper provides a study of the outcomes of the project, the impact of interlibrary lending in Australia and a cooperative approach between university, state, national and public libraries.

Interlending in Canada is affected by geographic, political and cultural factors. The population distribution complicates the provision of material services and new methods of document delivery are constantly under review. The political complexities are such as to make effective networking voluntary, informal or non‐governmental. A complex cultural background affects library collections and services. Interlending in Canada is vital as individual library collections are not yet fully developed. There are no central lending collections as such and interlibrary lending is largely decentralized. Location tools and services have changed radically over the last decade with the advent of automation. The introduction of air and truck delivery systems has solved many document delivery problems and they are developing rapidly. Interlibrary loan policies are based on a code which, amongst other things, promotes access to information as being in the general interest. Charges for interlibrary loans were reluctantly introduced in 1975 and caused temporary chaos. The issue has raised the question of the need for a national lending centre and this in turn raises the problem of copyright. A nationwide study of interlending in Canada was undertaken and the report submitted at the end of 1982. Other studies are being carried out at the provincial level. Interlending in Canada is in a very dynamic period: technology is moving towards the interlinking of a wide variety of systems better suited to the Canadian situation. In future, library collections may become smaller, and users will borrow from a central clearing‐house, or full‐text database. New technology will affect the traditional role of the library which will then concentrate on more sophisticated help to the user.