INTERNAL COSTS OF INTERLIBRARY LENDING IN BRITISH UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Available to Purchase

The question of interlibrary loan costs is of major importance to librarians in higher education establishments. In May 1978 the Library Management Research Unit (now the Centre for Library and Information Management) at Loughborough University carried out a short programme of studies to investigate the internal costs of interlibrary lending and borrowing at five libraries in three British universities. The studies were carried out at University A for five working days at random over four weeks, at University B (Main Library, Science Library, Medical Library) for 15 consecutive working days, and at University C for 19 consecutive working days. The necessary work time data was gathered by self‐completed diary surveys of staff at each library. In spite of some unavoidable differences in study technique at each library it proved possible to calculate some generally comparable unit costs from the work measurement data recorded. The libraries concerned had some reservations about the comparative study and the way in which it should best be carried out, but agreed in the end that it was a useful exercise giving reasonable results. At the same time the libraries produced their own estimates of unit costs based on annual expenditure and transaction data.