Emerging trends in interlibrary cooperation

Martin, Lowell A.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/495 Copy

Description

Title

Emerging trends in interlibrary cooperation

Author(s)

Martin, Lowell A.

Issue Date

1969

Keyword(s)

Library cooperation

Abstract

Cooperation among libraries is by no means a fresh and new idea. I need only mention interlibrary loan, centralized cataloging, personal use of reference, bibliographic records of holdings among groups of libraries, and agreements on planned joint acquisition of resources, including one among three large libraries in Chicago that is dated 1895. I do not know when the first book was exchanged between libraries in the United States, but I do know that the February 1913 issue of Library Journal carries an article on interlibrary loan that asks how long larger libraries can continue to carry the load of requests from smaller libraries without some compensating return. 1 Illinois began to answer the question half a century later by passing state legislation providing payments to designated reference and research centers. The early literature does not use the word cooperation as much as we do now, but the term may well apply in its purest meaning to the spontaneous, informal sharing of resources that was fairly common by the turn of the century. For a considerable period, libraries in cities, towns, schools, colleges, and universities were hard pressed to keep up with immediate and mounting local demands, Following this came a considerable lull in concrete cooperative projects among libraries. A man trying to keep his own boat afloat does not have much time to engage in squadron maneuvers with others, but a man who realizes he is destined in time to sink alone, does look around for help.

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Allerton Park Institute (15th : 1968)

ISSN

0536-4604

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/495

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