Document delivery and interlibrary loan dramatically expand the reach of a library and its collection.
An extremely popular service provided by many transportation libraries and information centers, document delivery is the provision of a document in hard copy or digital format that was otherwise unavailable to the requestor. (Most requests are satisfied using an electronic format.) For some libraries, this means that the item requested—a journal article or book chapter, for example—may or may not be part of the home library’s collection. For other libraries, the term document delivery only applies to electronic files that are provided to the requestor using items that are already owned or licensed by the library. With document delivery, copies of the journal articles or other content are for permanent retention and therefore require copyright clearance.
Unlike document delivery, where the item delivered is provided for permanent retention, materials requested and provided through interlibrary loan are available temporarily, and the term of the checkout period varies by provider. Most libraries participating in one or more resource sharing agreements will obtain for their users—and lend to others—books, journal articles, government documents, audiovisual resources and other physical materials. For special libraries such as transportation libraries, which often have unique or historical information that is not suitable for lending, development of a formal or informal interlibrary loan policy is important and especially useful when new staff comes on board to identify the materials that will not be lent outside the immediate library user community.
Resource of Note
Virginia DOT Research Library has developed a policy describing its interlibrary loan practices.
Some transportation libraries provide a customized online form that gathers details of the item being requested. Other libraries ask users to contact the librarian or provide a more general comment form.
Transportation libraries have a variety of options to establish a document delivery or interlibrary loan service.
Noteworthy Resources
OCLC’s Article Exchange offers secure, copyright-compliant delivery of documents and is included in an OCLC resource sharing subscription at no additional charge. Smaller libraries or information centers that are not members of OCLC can consider seeking out state or regional resource sharing services.
Libraries Very Interested in Sharing (LVIS) “represents the first global OCLC no charge Resource Sharing Group agreement.” LVIS was established in 1993 to encourage no charge resource sharing in the Midwest. Today, LVIS has more than 2,700 members worldwide.
State, regional or consortial document delivery services may be available. Some state and regional library networks offer document delivery services, such as Minitex Electronic Document Delivery. State library associations will have information about available options.
Informal cooperative networks such as TRANLIB-L, the email discussion list originated by the Special Libraries Association and now supported by NTL, can help connect transportation librarians and information services providers with transportation community members who may be able to provide difficult-to-source materials.