This study looks closely at academic library plans for their interlibrary loan operations, helping to answer ques such as: What have been spending trends on academic library loan over the past two years and what is expected over the next two years? How satisfied is library management with interlibrary loan operations? Does library management plan to put greater or lesser resources into this area in the future? To what extent do interlibrary loan trends and statistics impact materials’ purchasing-decision-making? What has been the impact on interlibrary loan of the use of institutional digital repositories and other open access sources?
The study is based on data from a survey of 73 academic library deans and directors with data broken out by academic institution size, type or Carnegie class, level of tuition, for public and private institutions and by other variables.
Just a few of this 37-page reports many findings are that:
R2 research and Doctoral level institutions were the most likely to have significantly increased spending on interlibrary loan over the past two years.
Institutional economies of scale appear to play an important role in satisfaction with the overall level of service in interlibrary loan.