Stuart Hunt Interlend 2003, Cambridge, July 2003 The European Interlending Environment

Outline  Is there a European interlending environment?  Types of European ILL activity  Objective or environmentally conditioned problems?

 “The shared use of individual library collections is a necessary element of international co-operation by libraries. Just as no library can be self-sufficient in meeting all the information needs of its users, so no country can be self-sufficient. The supply of loans and copies between libraries in different countries is a valuable and necessary part of the ILL process.” International Lending and Document Delivery: Principles and Guidelines for Procedure, 2001 rev. IFLA

Types of ILL activity  RegionalLimited choice  NationalSimple solutions  ContinentalMultiple choices  Inter-continentalComplex solutions  Planned vs unplanned decentralisation  Regions vs library-to-library } }

Centralised/distributed ILL  Centralised model  May make doing international ILL easier BUT slower & more costly  Distributed model  Greater control over choice of service  Neither may be used exclusively  Centralised collapses into distributed  Decline in central stock = increase in distributed ILL

Commercial/cooperative models  Commercial model  Income generation  Must break even  Cooperative model  Ideological  Service ethos  Difficult to sustain long-term

Types of European ILL activity  Intra-European interlending  Subito, Nordkvik, TEL (?)  Extra-European interlending  OCLC ILL  Intra- and extra- European interlending  BLDSC

Verbs  Discover  Locate  Request  Deliver

Finding  Bibliographic  Reliable citations/bibliographic data  Where?/What sources?  Union catalogue? OPAC(s)?  Holdings  Discovery of location(s)  Relation to bibliographic resource

Users  Things you may do to prevent them:  No loans for things held locally  System  Manual  Restrictions on service  User status/type  Restrictions on max cost

Lenders  How to send request? In what format?  , phone, fax, proprietary system, web-form  Who to? And how do you find their contact details?  Will they supply?  Will they charge? If so, how much?  Fill rate  Requesting from an unknown/untested source may result in low fill rates for borrowing = dissatisfied users

Payment  Free of charge or payment required?  Can you comply with payment method?  IFLA vouchers  Library credit cards  €  Banker/broker function by intermediary service.  e.g. OCLC IFM, Subito.

Legal  EU copyright directive  Implementation across Europe not consistent  What is legal in one country may not be legal in another  e.g. use of Ariel & other scanning software  E-signatures

Success  Reciprocate?  Success as a borrower = more work as a lender  All the questions you asked as a borrower you need to ask yourself as a lender…  Do we supply, do we charge, how, to whom, etc.  BUT being a supplier means income generation to finance more borrowing … OR establishing favourable reciprocal agreements

Automating the verbs  Discover, Locate, Request, Deliver  Z39.50, OpenURL, ISO ILL, NCIP  Will automate what you already do  Will ease what the user has to do  Machine-to-machine interaction  Standardised messaging/exchange of data

Standards  Require configuration  Do standards help with what it is difficult to do?  Find new lenders outside of the known  Getting management information  Disparate solutions = dispersion of data across systems/platforms

Technology  Relationship between technology, services & environment  Developing technology to meet service requirements or modifying service to meet technology?  ‘Road-building’  Historically conditioned  Availability of funding

Summary  There is no European interlending environment  Micro level - Policy may arise out of practical success or failure  Hybrid solutions that do not easily translate from place to place  Macro level – historically & environmentally conditioned approaches  National resources accessed/exploited by international users