INTERLIBRARY LENDING IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC: PROBLEMS OF CENTRALIZATION IN A DECENTRALIZED SYSTEM

The main national libraries are the Deutsche Bücherei, Leipzig, and the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, but collection building, including legal deposit copies, and interlibrary lending is based on regional principles, with the addition of special subject networks. There are regional union catalogues and a national union catalogue of foreign material in two parts, serials and monographs. Requests must be satisfied if possible within the interlending regions, but those for highly specialized literature may be sent direct to the relevant special subject library. The Deutsche Bücherei and the Staatsbibliothek are libraries of last resort only. There is a national centre for co‐ordinating all outgoing international requests, though foreign requests may be sent direct to libraries in the GDR. Statistics show that 370,226 requests were made in 1980, and 71.4% satisfied. 75,810 requests were received from abroad, of which 16.3% were supplied. Supply times for items that cannot be supplied direct are about 6–8 weeks. On‐line computerized union catalogues and further centralization within the basically decentralized national system will bring improvements.