D‐I‐Y Interloans: from dream to reality

This paper reports on a pilot project that enabled end‐user patrons to submit their own interloan requests. Promoted to Lincoln University's end‐users as D‐I‐Y Interloans (Do‐it‐Yourself Interloans), Lincoln University and the National Library of New Zealand undertook this joint project between October 2002 and January 2003. This paper describes the pilot project, its drivers and its guiding principles. The authors address a number of issues relating to the constraints of end‐user mediated interloans within a utility environment, trends that emerged and what end‐users thought of the process. Finally, the authors address the issue of the future for end‐user initiated requests in the New Zealand context.