Abstract
PurposeThis paper seeks to provide a practitioner‐based review of the broad issues, challenges and opportunities that currently exist within the UK document supply sector.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a survey and personal discussions with individuals across the sector, backed up by a literature review and background research.FindingsCurrently, there are a number of areas of particular concern facing UK interlenders. Most interlenders in the UK are experiencing a reduction in patron requests, and an upswing in direct requests from other libraries. Other challenges include the reduction in funding and subsequent impacts on services, the lending of electronic documents restricted by rights management software and licences, as well as the opportunities and potential threats offered by open access resources. Finally there seems to be a need to demonstrate effectively to senior management the value of interlending services to patrons.Originality/valueThe paper provides an overview of developments in interlending within the UK sector by a current practitioner and service manager.
Highlights
This paper seeks to provide a practitioner based review of the broad issues, challenges and opportunities that currently exist within the UK document supply sector
Survey of UK Interlenders In an effort to gather some broad insight from sector workers an anonymised online web mounted questionnaire was employed (Appendix A; SurveyMonkey, 2011), distributed via mailing lists as well as promoted through various social networks
That some respondents are experiencing an increase in the number of patron requests is heartening, as some commentators noted this may be due to a reduction in acquisition or subscription budgets and subsequent provision of texts within their respective library services
Summary
This paper seeks to provide a practitioner based review of the broad issues, challenges and opportunities that currently exist within the UK document supply sector. In part this is doubtless due to the increase in freely available quality open access resources, as well as tumbling costs of second hand books via reseller sites including Amazon or eBay. That some respondents are experiencing an increase in the number of patron requests is heartening, as some commentators noted this may be due to a reduction in acquisition or subscription budgets and subsequent provision of texts within their respective library services.
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