The cycles of interlending

Examines the interlending scene in the UK over the last 80 years and looks forward to what the future might hold. The decentralised beginnings of interlending in the 1920s and 1930s are contrasted with the move to centralisation which attended the formation of the National Library for Science and Technology in the 1960s. The recent demise in the UK of the centralised system is described and analysed. Outlines the British Library’s role in the emerging distributed electronic environment for document supply, and concludes with personal reflections on the current changes to the document supply landscape in the UK.