Search results

Focuses on international academic library staff exchanges from three perspectives: the author’s personal experience as an exchange participant, as director of a research library which has hosted six exchanges, and as chairman of CURL’s Staff Development Group, which is to implement an intra‐CURL libraries exchange programme in 1997‐98. Describes in detail a model of short, project‐based, reciprocal attachments, rather than traditional, longer‐term, exchanges. Looks forward to an international exchange programme between CURL and RLG libraries.

Although international staff exchanges among librarians have grown in number in recent years, they are still relatively rare. Outlines a survey of British university libraries carried out in 1992, soliciting information and opinions on exchanges from chief librarians and exchange participants. Uses the survey and the author′s own exchange experience to outline some sources of information and funding, and other practical and financial considerations, when arranging exchanges. Discusses the motivation of exchange participants, together with career and staff development outcomes for those taking part in exchanges. While internal or external promotion is an unlikely immediate sequel to an exchange, both library staff and chief librarians recognize a definite improvement in motivation and performance after an exchange. Despite administrative, training and other costs, libraries and library staff could profitably give more positive attention to exchanges when contemplating individual and library‐wide staff development.

This article looks at the experience of a single institution – University of Glasgow – concerning the influence of growing e‐journal availability on the volume of document delivery requests. The number of requests for Elsevier journal articles before and after the implementation of ScienceDirect is compared. The effects of, and reasons for, broader trends of document delivery demand at Glasgow are analysed. Differential demand and supply by faculty, relating to document delivery and e‐journals, are briefly considered.

This paper examines the pressures being exerted on university library budget structures by consortial licence agreements and “big deal” arrangements. Particular reference is made to developments at three higher educational institutions located in the city of Glasgow, Scotland: the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian University, and the University of Glasgow. Pricing in the electronic information environment is likely to remain a complex and difficult area for the foreseeable future and academic library budgets will need to be sufficiently flexible in nature to be able to accommodate the complexities of current economic models. This flexibility is likely to require some degree of funding to remain under central control.

During the feasibility study into a National Union catalogue for the UK (UKNUC), a questionnaire survey was undertaken of the needs of both academic staff in higher education and library staff. A response rate of 40‐50 per cent was achieved, 846 questionnaires being returned for academics and 724 for librarians. The analysis suggests that a UKNUC would be highly valued and heavily used by all categories. Academics felt it would have a positive effect on their information searching, and wished to include the holdings of the British Library, and libraries of both the major research universities and the “traditional” universities. They wanted it to be comprehensive and easy to use, to include locations of both books and journals, and to facilitate subject collection searching. Library staff have similar priorities to academics, although there are more variations by sector and a recognition of a UKNUC’s value as a potential source of bibliographic records.

The article looks at a number of possible reasons for the current downturn in the volume of interlibrary loan (ILL) and document supply (DS) requests in the UK higher education (HE) sector. Figures quantifying the demand for these services are examined at the outset by means of a short survey that was circulated to ten HE institutions. The impact of electronic journals on ILL and DS services is scrutinised and proven to be a significant factor. The bibliographic searching behaviour of university researchers is investigated by means of a short questionnaire, and the results of the survey are evaluated. The recent rise in the number of postgraduate students in UK universities is confirmed. The topics of library budgets and the impact of end‐user services are also examined. The article concludes that it is the increase in the number of electronic journal subscriptions that has had the most significant impact on the recent decrease in demand for ILL and DS services in UK academic libraries.