The economic efficiencies of alternatives to purchase and loan of library resources

Abstract

The major part of library budget is allocated to document acquisition and processing. Librarians and library users, however, have been marking use increasingly ot alternative methods of accessing information other than through acquiring original documents, like the utilization of full-text databases, supply of document copies and interlibrary loan services. The sending of users to other libraries can also be considered through the coordination of library acquisition policies and shared cataloguing systems, and the consulting services of information brokers is also taken into account. The primary role of alternative document supply is played now by interlibrary loaning. The possible saving by interlibrary borrowing of documents against purchasing them was examined in the Library of the Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. In spite of the encouraging results, the services of a library must not rely exclusively on alternative sources but it is suggested that in the future their enhanced utilization in libraries should be introduced.