Share resources through the largest interlibrary loan network

Purpose The paper aims to show how using a resource-sharing service can help you provide more resources to your users. Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses interlibrary loan challenges and opportunities, specifically with reference to WorldShare Interlibrary Loan. Findings This paper describes the service that connects libraries to the largest cooperative resource-sharing network with more than 10,000 borrowing and lending libraries worldwide, the possibilities for the future, facts and figures and how libraries around the world have used the solution successfully. Originality/value This paper looks at how WorldShare Interlibrary Loan can help libraries overcome the challenges that they face regarding resource sharing.

Interlending and document supply: a review of the recent literature; 93

Purpose This paper aims to review the current library and information science (LIS) literature for document supply, resource sharing and other issues such as open access (OA) that have an impact on the service. Design/methodology/approach The approach is based on the scanning of about 150 journals, reports, websites and blogs. Findings Of the 13 articles and reports reviewed, 12 are freely available, continuing the trend of increasing OA. As always, these days, much is happening on the OA front. Big Deals, demand-driven acquisition and discovery tools are reviewed. Originality/value The only regular literature review that focuses on interlending, document supply and related issues.

A farewell from the editor to Interlending and Document Supply

Purpose This study aims to reflect on developments in document supply and scholarly communications and to look into the future of the service. Design/methodology/approach This study provides an informal overview. Findings The results of this study indicate that Interlending and Document Supply (ILDS) as a service has a long future ahead of it albeit at a lower level than in the recent past. Originality/value As a farewell to ILDS, it is inevitably original; its value will be judged by the reader.

Interlending and document supply: a review of the recent literature; 94

Purpose This paper aims to review the current library and information science (LIS) literature for document supply, resource sharing and other issues such as open access (OA) that have an impact on the service. Design/methodology/approach The approach is based on the scanning of about 150 journals, reports, websites and blogs. Findings OA continues to grow and, hence, the impact of document supply. Improvements in the Interlending and Document Supply service are satisfying. Originality/value This paper is the only regular review of LIS literature in this subject area.

Open science: a revolution in sight?

Purpose This paper aims to describe the evolution of scientific communication, largely represented by the publication process. It notes the disappearance of the traditional publication on paper and its progressive replacement by electronic publishing, a new paradigm implying radical changes in the whole mechanism. It aims also at warning the scientific community about the dangers of some new avenues and why, rather than subcontracting an essential part of its work, it must take back full control of its production. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the emerging concepts in scholarly publication and aims to answer frequently asked questions concerning free access to scientific literature as well as to data, science and knowledge in general. Findings The paper provides new observations concerning the level of compliance to institutional open access mandates and the poor relevance of journal prestige for quality evaluation of research and researchers. The results of introducing an open access policy at the University of Liège are noted. Social implications Open access is, for the first time in human history, an opportunity to provide free access to knowledge universally, regardless of either the wealth or the social status of the potentially interested readers. It is an essential breakthrough for developing countries. Originality/value Open access and Open Science in general must be considered as common values that should be shared freely. Free access to publicly generated knowledge should be explicitly included in universal human rights. There are still a number of obstacles hampering this goal, mostly the greed of intermediaries who persuade researchers to give their work for free, in exchange for prestige. The worldwide cause of Open Knowledge is thus a major universal issue for the twenty-first century.

Multi-library union, promoting ILL/DD of the Chinese science digital library

Purpose This study aims to describe and analyse interlibrary loans and document delivery (ILL/DD) in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and to evaluate the ILL/DD service quality of one particular library. Design/methodology/approach ILL/DD at the Chinese Science Digital Library (CSDL) is described. The success of ILL/DD at CSDL is analysed. Finally, the service quality of one library’s ILL/DD based on LibQUAL+ is evaluated. Findings ILL/DD at CSDL can be improved through a multi-library union, and a modified LibQUAL+ model can be used to evaluate a library’s ILL/DD service quality. Social implications More patrons can access a better service, and the work efficiency of librarians can be improved. Originality/value This study is helpful to librarians interested in ILL/DD and resource sharing in China.

Ready for the future? A survey on open access with scientists from the French National Research Center (CNRS)

Purpose This paper aims to present empirical evidence on the opinion and behaviour of French scientists (senior management level) regarding open access (OA) to scientific and technical information. Design/methodology/approach The results are part of a nationwide survey on scientific information and documentation with 432 directors of French public research laboratories conducted by the French National Research Center (CNRS) in 2014. Findings The CNRS senior research managers (laboratory directors) globally share the positive opinion towards OA revealed by other studies with researchers from the UK, Germany, the USA and other countries. However, they are more supportive of open repositories (green road) than of OA journal publishing (gold). The response patterns reveal a gap between generally positive opinions about OA and less supportive behaviours, principally publishing articles with article processing charges (APCs). A small group of senior research managers does not seem to be interested in green or gold OA and reluctant to self-archiving and OA publishing. Similar to other studies, the French survey confirms disciplinary differences, i.e. a stronger support for self-archiving of records and documents in HAL by scientists from Mathematics, Physics and Informatics than from Biology, Earth Sciences and Chemistry; and more experience and positive feelings with OA publishing and payment of APCs in Biology than in Mathematics or in Social Sciences and Humanities. Disciplinary differences and specific French factors are discussed, in particular in the context of the new European policy in favour of Open Science. Originality/value For the first time, a nationwide survey was conducted with the senior research management level from all scientific disciplines. The response rate was high (>30 per cent), and the results provide good insight into the real awareness, support and uptake of OA by senior research managers who provide both models (examples for good practice) and opinion leadership.

OhioLINK – recent developments at a United States academic library consortium

Purpose This paper aims to provide an update to Tom Sanville’s 2007 overview of OhioLINK, a renowned US academic library consortium, and describe the current state of activity and services. Design/methodology/approach The approach used is descriptive. Findings OhioLINK’s main collaborative services include document delivery, resource sharing and the establishment of digital libraries, including electronic journals, electronic books and open-access materials such as electronic theses and dissertations. This update to Tom Sanville’s 2007 overview of OhioLINK issues and developments describes the current state of collaborative library services and resource sharing a decade later, including the challenges of hosted institutional repositories and the implications of shifting from shared print to e-book collections at the network level. Originality/value OhioLINK trends provide a snapshot of changing activity and sustainability in library resource sharing at network scale across many different types of academic libraries.

Resource sharing in the UK public library system: an update

Purpose This paper aims to review the position of UnityUK and FABLibraries (Find a Book in Libraries) some five years after a review by the same author (with Elisabeth Robinson) was published in 2011. Design/methodology/approach The UnityUK service and its co-service FABLibraries is placed in the current service and political context: changing politics and reductions in public service. The conclusions of a survey conducted by the University of Sheffield are noted as current technical developments. Findings Subscriptions to UnityUK remain stable despite an overall decline in interlending. The FABLibraries service is well positioned to play a key role in the creation of a single digital presence for public libraries in England and in the UK. Practical implications The outcome of major recent political change in respect of public service is not yet known, but there is reason to be confident about the role of the two services in supporting resource discovery and supply. Social implications The FABLibraries service is well positioned to be the major building block in a national e-public library platform. This would provide a cost-effective means of making national resources accessible to everyone who can get online. Originality/value The author provides an up-to-date perspective of the impact of change, recent government reports and public sector austerity on interlending and the position of key resource discovery tools in that environment.

Open supply? On the future of document supply in the world of open science

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a personal viewpoint on the development of document supply in the context of the recent European Union (EU) decisions on open science. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides some elements to the usual questions of service development, about business, customers, added value, environment and objectives. Findings The EU goal for open science is 100 per cent available research results in 2020. To meet the challenge, document supply must change, include more and other content, serve different targets groups, apply innovative technology and provide knowledge. If not, document supply will become a marginalized library service. Originality/value Basically, open science is not library-friendly, and it does not offer a solution for the actual problems of document supply. But it may provide an opportunity for document supply to become a modern service able to deal with new forms of unequal access and digital divide.