Effective Access to the Periodical Literature: A National Program

Abstract

The borrowing of materials by one library from another library, i. e., interlibrary loan, has been the traditional means of increasing patron access to items not available locally. The explosion of publications and other informational materials in recent years, as well as the continuing inflationary spiral in costs have played havoc on libraries in the United States. There is now almost universal recognition that more drastic changes to provide effective library services are needed. Although complete statistics of national interlibrary loan traffic for all libraries are not available, the number of interlibrary loans probably exceeds 10 million annually. Statistics published by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) show that its 99 member libraries made 2,158,000 interlibrary loans during the year 1974–75, whereas in the same period, these same large university, national, and special research libraries borrowed 477,000 items from other libraries. While interlibrary loan, as viewed by librarians, was intended to be approximately an evenly balanced reciprocal lending and borrowing operation among libraries – achieving a quid pro quo – these statistics indicate that balanced reciprocity is not often achieved.