INTERLIBRARY LOAN: AN OLD IDEA IN A NEW SETTING

Today it is access rather than ownership which is the important question to users. Timely delivery of information is costly, but the price must be paid. Library users have been trained by librarians to be passive and to expect delays in their requests for information. This attitude springs from acceptance of interlibrary loan as a moral precept rather than a pragmatic commodity, an idea which now conflicts with librarians' responsibilities as managers of an accountable resource. Accepting the premise that resource sharing is the priority of the future, librarians must determine ILL costs honestly, in order to provide the supplier with a fair incentive. They must shape their procedures to the needs of their clients and they must allow for ILL as an alternative to purchase in their acquisition budgets. Since ILL is only another form of acquisition (albeit ‘temporary acquisition’) it is both irrational and unfair to charge clients for this service. If ILL is worth doing, it is worth doing well, ensuring timely, high quality service. ILL should take its place as a normal and necessary element of any library's acquisition policy: no library is an island.