Why requests fail

Describes a study undertaken in 1996 to examine interlibrary loan and document supply request failures in the UK and Ireland. The project surveyed 54 public, university and special libraries, monitoring and categorizing their failed requests and their failures to supply items requested from them. Differences in rates and nature of request failure between libraries of different types and for different types of material were examined. Data were simultaneously collected on requests passing through the British Library Document Supply Centre, reply codes were monitored and analysed, and operational systems and procedures examined. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations made at a national policy level and at the operational, practice‐based level. At national level they include access strategies, acquisitions and retention policies, and resource discovery strategies. At operational level they focus on the submission of requests, the use, management and maintenance of databases and catalogues, and technical standards.