Non‐mediated, patron‐initiated inter‐library loan recently became a new component of OhioLINK, a consortium of Ohio academic libraries in both the public and private sectors ranging from major research institutions to community colleges. “Inter‐institutional lending” is used in this article to denote the process by which Miami University Libraries' patrons request items from other OhioLINK libraries. Pre‐implementation speculation, post‐implementation experiences, and control mechanisms showcase how “inter‐institutional lending” is leading to Ohio's dream of a virtual library.
S c o t t R. D i M a r c o ABSTRACT. A full text document delivery system, U M l ' s Pro-Quest@ PowerPages, quickly became popular with our undergraduates. Early observations by some library statf seemed to indicate that uscrs were more concerned with quick access to matcrial than the relevance o f the material to their research. Our concerns about thc possible negative consequences o f ovcr-rcliance upon this and similar systcms Icd us to investigate. We gathered usage data and distributed a survey to users. We explorcd our misgivings and tried to understand uscr nceds and undergraduate affinity for such clcclronic resources.
/Arricle copies u~mrrilahle for u fee born The Haworrli Dociuvet~t Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-tnail address: getitifoo@hawor~lipressbic.comjOur undergraduates had, i t seemed, become quite enamored of a n e w document delivery system. In the first year of operation, undergraduates (along w i t h a f e w graduate students and faculty) p r i n t e d 40,000 articles f r o m the UMI P r o q u e s t B PowerPages i m a g e d e l i very system. W e h a d n o t extensively p r o m o t e d the n e w service. For the first f e w months w e considered PowerPages t o b e in a test mode: articles printed f r o m the databases were free-of-charge t o
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