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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.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse managerial approaches of a selective group of national library directors, examining their views and perceptions of successful library leadership in the twenty-first century in different sociocultural contexts. This study was carried out based on a series of semi-structured interviews with ten top-level directors of national libraries located on different continents.

The data collection method for this study consisted of the narrative analysis of the ten interviews coupled with the participative leadership theory, which highlights the leaders’ desire to create a more democratic culture within their library organisations.

The analysis of these interviews reveals that many of the directors’ responses were supportive to the concepts discussed in participative leadership. National librarians, through their participative leadership philosophies, values and beliefs, contributed to the development of an institutional culture that fostered improving trust, communications, engagement as well as promotion of inter-team relationships by breaking down the traditional “hierarchical” barriers within their organisations.

The participants were predominantly from Europe; only one participant represented the USA, Middle East (Israel) and Northern Africa (Egypt). As a result, there are not many diverse viewpoints from national library directors outside of Europe. Further studies would be needed to obtain a more international perspective in the national library sphere. Furthermore, this study only examines the views and attitudes of ten different library directors. In comparison with the totality of national library directors across the world, this is a relatively small sample. This study may not be representative of all national library directors around the world.

The results of this study would be of interest to library professionals and educators interested in management, as well as Library and Information Science students who want to understand how national library directors view successful traits of participative leadership in different sociocultural contexts.

In the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe most information technology was unavailable, unaffordable or discouraged for forty years. These countries realise that they must improve their internal infrastructures if they are to become integral parts of the global information infrastructure. We report the results of a mail survey conducted in late 1994 and early 1995 of seventy research libraries in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, building on the findings from interviews conducted with 300 persons in the region in 1993–1994. Results show that these libraries are acquiring automated processing systems, CD‐ROM databases, and connections to computer networks at a rapid rate and that automation activity has increased substantially since 1989; we report specific data on system implementation and network services by country and by type of library. ‘Access’ is their top reason to automate, which appears to mean placing the catalogue online with better search capabilities and putting items on the shelves faster — but does not necessarily mean improvements in self‐service for library users. Co‐operation and standards are highly‐ranked automation goals, yet we find anomalous results on each. Management goals focus more on speed and processing than on management information, staffing or advancing the mission of the parent organisation. Management of human resources ranks low, despite the need for wider staff involvement in the system selection process, education of technically‐trained library professionals, continuing training of staff and training of library users. We conclude with implications of these results for the region.

Acquisition is an essential element in Universal Availability of Publications. An extensive literature review and a questionnaire survey revealed that few countries have a national acquisition policy but that there are numerous examples of informal arrangements involving substantial numbers of libraries. Factors influencing the existence and nature of a national acquisition system include the level of national commitment to libraries, attitudes of libraries to co‐operation, and administrative responsibility for libraries. National plans must be geared to national needs and circumstances; systems may be centralized or decentralized (by subject or other features), and may be centrally planned or based on voluntary co‐operation. The National Library may have a critical role to play. Five possible models are: a centralized unit of first resort; a decentralized region‐based system; centralized national subject libraries; decentralized responsibilities; and a central collection of journals only. Each country can decide on the appropriate model for its situation and requirements.

This compilation of over 500 United States Government bibliographies is the second annual supplement to BIBLIOGRAPHY OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIES 1968–1973 (Pierian Press). Due to the Government Printing Office backlog during 1974, many 1973 and 1974 titles are included in this 1975 Supplement, which should have appeared earlier.

Finland had a legislation-based centralized collection policy until the mid-1990s. The main components were national resource centers (selected higher education libraries) and provincial libraries (selected public libraries). This paradigm changed during the recession of the 1990s when new public management ideologies were adopted by the government. This ended the centralized model and a new policy favoring a decentralized collection management which demanded resource sharing. The models designated for the print-only age became obsolete also when the digital dissemination of especially scientific documents began to be the norm. The Finnish libraries have started to implement a new strategy consisting of different elements including a new model of library automation systems, the National Repository which is the hub for the resource sharing of print materials, digitization projects (to be especially implemented by the National Library) and with new policies defining the roles and responsibilities of each of the libraries involved. This article aims to describe the history of the Finnish centralized collection policy, its shift to the modern management of the collection as well as the philosophy and tools used in this work.

The paper describes the evolution of the Finnish national collection policy and its main trends.

The National Repository Library has enabled Finnish university libraries to focus their collection policies and to make savings in the cost of premises. A new business model for the digital era is needed for document sharing between libraries.

The paper is based on Finnish experiences.

Models for national and international collection and preservation policies are presented.

The paper provides proposals for the building of global division of work in the long-tail management of documents.

To review the challenges associated with ensuring the capture and preservation of and long‐term access to government records and publications in the digital age and to describe how libraries and archives in Australia are responding to the challenge.

Literature‐ and case‐study‐based conceptual analysis of what makes government online information so vulnerable and initiatives at the National Library of Australia and the National Archives of Australia.

Democracy, governance, consultation and participation all depend on the availability of authentic and reliable information. Government agencies as well as educational and research institutions are producing increasingly large volumes of information in digital formats only. While Australia has done more than most countries to date to address the need to identify, collect, store and preserve government publications and public records in digital formats, large amounts of information are still at risk of loss.

Focuses on circumstances and initiatives in the Australian Government.

Librarians and archivists need to become more proactive in influencing the behaviour of government agencies to ensure that important evidence of democratic governance is created and managed in ways that facilitate their accessibility and long‐term preservation.

Emphasises the vital role that information management agencies such as libraries and archives have to play in supporting transparent and accountable governance in the digital age, and explores innovative strategies for ensuring the long‐term preservation of this important documentary heritage material for the use of future generations.

This article follows on an investigation conducted by the Unit for Library and Information Research of the Human Sciences Research Council in 1981 for the Department of National Education. The article is limited to a consideration of the aim and functions of national library services. Matters such as the organisation and management of these services, the pros and cons of centralisation and decentralisation in particular circumstances, bringing services into line with modern demands, problem areas in existing services, the raison d'être of national library and information advisory councils alongside the management councils of national library services, legislation of these services, etc. have been excluded from the discussion.

This paper aims to summarise the changing pattern of Australian interlibrary loans and document delivery, the achievements of the consultative mechanisms (National Resource Sharing Working Group and National Research Sharing Policy Committees) and issues identified for further action.

Looks at the different aspects of resource sharing.

The major themes identified for future action are the need for increased resource discovery (through the NBD), acquisition of collections (particularly with library closures), capability building (training and manuals), information on performance and an urgent need to review the ILRS Code to improve speed of delivery and intelligibility of service levels.

From the user perspective, the ILL/DD system in the early twenty‐first century is complex and fragmented. The challenge for the Australian library sector is to build on the good infrastructure and systems developed through the NRSWG and NRSPC over the past six years and to develop new models which provide easy transparent modes of access to library collections across the nation.