The Road From Interlibrary Loan to Electronic Document Delivery Services

"Interlibrary loan" has traditionally served as a means for libraries to fill the user's need for materials not owned locally through resource sharing with other library collections. With the advent of new technologies and computer networks, significant improvements have been made to the traditional interlibrary loan activities. "Document delivery", by using electronic means to communicate and deliver, combined with the use of current contents services, full-text retrieval and document suppliers' services, is more capable of providing satisfactory services to the users. This article presents an overview of the history of interlibrary loan and document delivery services, and discusses some related issues, such as copyright, cost, access vs. ownership, etc. Document suppliers and the current status of their systems are examined. Finally, the development of interlibrary loan and document delivery services in Taiwan, and the future directions for these services are also discussed.