COMPUTER NETWORK SYSTEMS: THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON CO‐OPERATIVE INTERLENDING IN THE USA

Recent developments in the USA have favoured decentralized networks rather than centralized resource libraries. US libraries have virtually no central planning or funding and the main drive towards progress is the initiative of individual libraries. This has created in the last ten years three major computer utilities — OCLC, RLG, WLN — and some twenty regional networks. OCLC is now in effect a commercial enterprise. Its shared cataloguing system can serve as an on‐line union catalogue; this has led to the development of an interlibrary loan subsystem which has increased the volume and changed the pattern of interlending. RLG and WLN have highly developed computer systems, but it is too early to assess their impact on inter/ending. These computer networks would be complemented, not duplicated by central resource libraries; with the National Periodicals Center effectively shelved, the Center for Research Libraries could take on a more dynamic role. Commercial vendors are often overlooked, but are an important element in document delivery systems. They are completely outside conventional library systems and might cream off the profitable end of the document supply market.