The situation facing UK public libraries and the need to change the status and approach of interlending

The purpose of his paper is to describe the situation facing public libraries in the UK and specifically in London, in particular the role of interlending and the potential for its development.

The author uses his own research work into the work of London libraries.

The paper finds that in a period of deep cuts there nonetheless exist real opportunities for developing services, and concrete suggestions and proposals are made.

This is one of the very few articles to address the issue of interlending in one of the world's largest cities.