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This paper examines the particular characteristics underpinning resource sharing among university libraries in Australia, and describes a series of projects aimed at improving the technical infrastructure of interlibrary lending. It also outlines the links between these national projects and a European flagship project aimed at building distributed information services environments. By way of conclusion, there is a summary of the challenges inherent in creating global information infrastructure.

There would be few in the library world who would dispute the fact that information technology is having an impact on management perspectives, service goals, organisational matters and library housekeeping systems. But there would also be few who would claim to have a firm grasp of the complex interaction between developments in technology and their effects on library and information services. The need therefore to sponsor research into both the technologies and the potential applications is of crucial importance as a means of confronting these problems.

New horizons are beginning to emerge in terms of matching people and information resources in a networked service environment. Librarians, publishers, subscription agents, database hosts and information service aggregators are now actively engaged in rethinking information landscapes, in harnessing Internet technologies, and in finding ways to link institutional legacy systems to the web technologies in a manner that will appear transparent to the user. There is, as yet, no coherent view of the new service models and this paper attempts to foreshadow a conceptual framework on which to build sustainable service models and technical infrastructure. In doing so, particular attention is paid to the key issues of authentication, authorisation and access management which are basic building blocks for the creation of a secure and efficient networked information service environment. The experiences gained at Macquarie University with projects such as LIDDAS and PRIDE have helped in the development of the ideas presented in this paper.

It has been widely assumed for the past ten years that multisite libraries, a feature of polytechnic institutions in the U.K., are expensive to operate, difficult to administer and by implication that the services offered are limited. Some years back, Wilfred Ashworth wrote an authoritative article covering most of the major administrative problems of multisite library systems and much of what he said still has considerable relevance. But given the increasing pressures resulting from the stringent financial climate and the continuing diversification of polytechnics, it is worth re‐examining some of the management problems associated with multisite library services in polytechnics. My observations are based on numerous conversations with colleagues in other polytechnics and as such have no particular reference to any one library service.

Libraries, as distinct from information services, have built their existing reputation primarily on their ability to acquire a broad resource base of books, journals and grey literature in advance of demand in order to meet as many demands as possible. Size of collection has always been an implicit measure of success both in the eyes of fellow professionals and in the eyes of the parent body. The acquisition and maintenance of such collections demanded a high proportion of fixed costs and most justification centred on incremental adjustments arising out of inflation costs or the need to provide a larger resource base. This general approach to the costing of traditional libraries has been common to both the public and private sector irrespective of the size of the library involved but it is now under severe challenge for a number of reasons:

Information technology as a term is now firmly established in the minds of not only professional groups and the commercial and industrial world but in the public mind. This process has been hastened by the enormous boost to publicity which has resulted from the emerging IT82 campaign. The diversity of the campaign is itself bewildering and is an indication of the pervasiveness of the new technology upon society as a whole. The term ‘information technology’, inadequate as it may be, cannot be ignored and librarians face the challenge of translating it into meaningful goals for their respective institutions.

On 1 February 1985 an invited audience of representatives from a wide variety of library and information organisations attended a seminar on software evaluation sponsored by the British Library and held at Information House, the headquarters of Aslib, the Association for Information Management.

This article describes recent attempts to formalise relationships between the university sector in Australia, and equivalent bodies in the UK and the USA, in the development of information infrastructure through the creation of international liaison positions. The article provides a historical overview for collaborative activity of this kind, and gives an organisational perspective on the current developments. It describes the process by which potential issues for international collaboration were selected, discusses the opportunities for collaboration in each ‐‐ library purchasing consortia, subject‐based information gateways, mirroring of databases, authentication systems, and the scholarly communications crisis ‐‐ and reports on progress with those issues. The strengths and weaknesses of this formal, nation‐to‐nation approach are also discussed.

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.

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 housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is produced and substantially written by the Editor who is based at the Polytechnic of Central London and supported by a grant from 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 on either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.