INTERLIBRARY LENDING AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE POLYTECHNIC LIBRARY: A STUDY OF SUPPLY TIMES, JANUARY—MARCH 1986

A survey of total supply time for interlibrary loan requests from despatch of request to receipt of item was conducted at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic Library during the three weeks beginning 27 January 1986. The purposes of the survey were to determine the supply time of items received from the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC), and to compare the performance of two transport scheme van delivery services in use. All requests sent to BLDSC over a period of 2½ weeks were monitored. BLDSC satisfied 71% of requests sent to it by the Polytechnic from stock, 51% being supplied within one week. The average supply time for an item was 5.9 days. As expected, the vast majority (98%) of items received were delivered by van. There would appear to be little to choose between the two van services used with regard to number of items delivered and speed of delivery.