DOCUMENT DELIVERY - A COMPARISON OF COMMERCIAL DOCUMENT SUPPLIERS AND INTERLIBRARY LOAN SERVICES

Cost-effective and timely document delivery is becoming a major concern as many academic libraries face cuts in serials budgets. This study examines the costs and response times of traditional interlibrary loan (ILL) services and four commercial document suppliers. From October 1991 to February 1992, a total of 52 periodical requests were sent through Online Computer Library Center's (OCLC's) Interlibrary Loan subsystem simultaneously to academic libraries and to four document suppliers. Data were gathered on each supplier's ability to fill the requests, and the costs, turnaround times, and the quality of the articles supplied. Results indicated that traditional ILL was the most cost-effective and one of the quickest means of obtaining articles not owned by our library.