Europe Divided or United? Networking and Document Supply, now and in the Future

Abstract

The tendency to talk about Europe as a single unit needs to be modified in the light of different revels of development in both eastern and western parts of the continent. Information is an international commodity which knows no barriers and one essential method of communicating it is published materials of all kinds. No country can hope to be self-sufficient in provision of materials and cooperation is essential to meet the needs of users. This is one of the foundations of the concept of Universal Availability of Publications (UAP) promoted by IFLA. Although research shows that the majority of document supply requests are for Western European language journals in science and technology, other materials are also important. Because of the language factor, most Eastern European countries will always be net borrowers in international terms as most of their languages are not read extensively outside their own borders (...)