Chapter R - Document Delivery Service (DDS)

Abstract

Document delivery service (DDS) or document supply service “refers to the physical or electronic delivery of a document from a library collection to the residence or place of business of a library user, upon request.” The steps to be followed in providing DDS are: receipt and analysis of demand, identification and location of required document, procurement of document, copying the required portion of the document, if required, and delivering the original/copy of the required portion of the document to the user. Various media are employed for document delivery, such as delivery from circulation desk within the library, or at the user’s doorstep by messenger or by post/courier, transmission through fax, delivery of document recorded on CD/DVD, transmission of soft copy through intranet or as e-mail attachment. Inter-library lending has been the earliest method used for document delivery. This system is still prevalent in many countries. With the advent of various reprographic techniques, it has now become possible to supply photocopies of required portions of documents. Mainly xerography is now being used for preparing photocopies of documents. When a copy of any document or a portion of a document is supplied to the user it involves legal issue. Many countries have made provision in their copyright laws to allow copying in a limited way for “fair use” by scholars and researchers. A library/information professional does the liaison work in DDS. The most popular DDS provider, at international level is perhaps the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC, earlier known as BLLD and now re-launched as British Library on Demand). There are also now private organizations which provide this service.