A survey of interlibrary loans at Rud^‐‐er Bošković Institute Library, Croatia, 2003‐2008

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this survey is to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of interlibrary loan (ILL) at the RBI Library in Croatia.

Design/methodology/approach

Various indices were measured including: the percentage of fulfilled ILL requests, the difference between copy and loan requests, the difference between requests fulfilled free of charge and fee‐based and also to calculate the document delivery time. The analyzed data on received ILL requests were gathered via an in‐house‐developed application for ILL called SEND, via which RBI researchers submit their ILL requests to the RBI Library.

Findings

This survey showed a high percentage of fulfilled ILL requests (94.6 percent), but there was also a surprisingly high percentage of cancelled ILL requests, because RBI Library owned the requested documents (21.8 percent). Most ILL requests were copy requests and the analysis of the gathered data showed a trend of acquiring more documents free of charge. Delivery time has decreased in the period of the survey, and in 2008 it was less than six working days for copy requests and approximately ten days for loan requests. The delivery time was shorter for fee‐based requests.

Originality/value

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the ILL service at the RBI Library for a six‐year period (2003‐2008).

Citation

Macan, B. and Konjević, S. (2011), "A survey of interlibrary loans at Rud^‐‐er Bošković Institute Library, Croatia, 2003‐2008", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 45-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/02641611111112147