The purpose of this article is to offer a view to non‐Italian librarians on Italian document supply (DS) developments and to submit to Italian DS librarians some points for discussion and some problems to solve.
Italian DS is described from the perspective of a large university library's interactions with its users (faculty, undergraduate students and researchers) and its suppliers (Italian and European libraries together with non‐library suppliers). Some characteristics of Italian library systems can be better understood by referring to the historical context; other characteristics reflect the difficulty of considering DS services as a strategic service integrated with other services.
Italian DS services reveal two models of organisation and strategy, the networked and the independent. Four key factors are changing the target population, partners, policies and the role of DS in Italy: university reform, the increasing number of online full text journals available in universities, transdisciplinary research, and the internet.
The article can be used by non‐Italian librarians to obtain information about Italian libraries and their DS services. It gives some useful URLs and some guidance to finding documents via Italian OPACs.
