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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
1988
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED302261 |
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Table of Contents:
- An Evaluation of Document Delivery Service to Interlibrary Loan: A Commercial Firm and a Traditional Library Source. Halsey, Kathleen F. Academic Libraries Comparative Analysis Copyrights Delivery Systems Higher Education Interlibrary Loans Library Services Management Information Systems Online Searching Optical Data Disks State Programs This study was conducted at a midwestern university to determine whether a commercial firm can serve as a viable alternative to the conventional library source for academic interlibrary loan document delivery service. One hundred twenty-four identical article requests were ordered electronically and almost simultaneously from both the University Microfilms International (UMI) Article Clearinghouse (a commercial firm), and Wisconsin Interlibrary Services (WILS). Data were recorded for evaluating collection coverage, fill rate, turnaround time, document quality, and direct cost per article over 37 consecutive work days. It was found that UMI can provide photocopied articles of good quality but at a greater cost and without improvement in the turnaround time; many requests could not be directed to the company because of their limited coverage; and, for the number of requests made, the firm's fill rate was less than that of WILS. The following conclusions were reached: (1) even at greater expense, the interlibrary loan manager may find commercial firms convenient for handling copyright compliance and filling requests unavailable from traditional sources; (2) telefacsimile promises improvement in turnaround time; and (3) although WILS does an excellent job in meeting the university's interlibrary loan needs, commercial firms can also be utilized to broaden that kind of service. (32 references) (CGD)