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The
space of the book in ILL: how librarians image ILL face to the new technologies.
Anna Vaglio
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Sources
65 messages sent to the Italian Librarians discussion list (AIB-Cur) from the beginning of 1995 to the end of the year 2000 18 articles published by Italian librarians on professional journals in the same period Method Search for all the descriptions of Interlibrary loans service Selection of words and the expressions that define ILL characteristics and perspectives Subdivision of the selected words in three groups: words about the context of ILL, words about how and where the books circulate, words about tools andlimits of ILL What are we searching? Context,
space
and limitsof
ILL in Italian librarians' words
Red words - the context of ILL Technology has deeply changed the basis of ILL: Many
kinds of OPACs and sources of information
unprecedented increasing of possibilities of search and retrieval
the
user wants (dreams of) his documents, no matter where they come from
In this context,
ILL still remains the better way to
the user won't put any limit to his needs the user urges for efficiency and timeliness the user is a customer the library is a customer too the relationships between libraries and commercial suppliers of documents are changing have
access to many sources of information and documents easily
And consequently,
librarians consider it
save the time of the users make wide patrimonies accessibles the exaltation of the traditional library the framework of library services a strategic, cardinal service, on which in some case the whole library depends pure consumption antagonist of the traditional services But are they ready to break the traditional structure of Interlibrary loan, that is: user-library
A-libraryB-user-libraryB?
blue words - the space of ill Where do librarians send books? And from where do they receive them? They imagine two schemes of search, as far as we understand from the words they use to describe the location of documents a sequential scheme: they look for a general register of libraries a census a list a directory a concentric scheme, from the library, to the local network, to the national ILL system, to the international one circulation circuit network of contacts local loan network loan center of the network inter-networks loan from every region of Italy national interlibrary loan to obtain document at least in Italy only national services can lend outside the country international loan foreign and italian libraries both national and international no difference between Italy and the rest of Europe babel of projects national ILL services system cooperation
Only sometimes
they imagine different paths, from the energetic
space of their library towards various suppliers,
scattered everywhere, besides their traditional boundaries: a library outside
their country, or a commercial supplier, a research center, the author
of a working paper.
Every
library is the Library
each library thinks about itself as the only library a local databank containing the electronic traces of all the documents obtained from other libraries Extra libraries loan librarians operate in different directions ILL exceeds the limits of every library green words - the limits of ILL Why librarians
help the users to find books everywhere on the net but ask for slow and
safe transactions without moving from
their quiet network? Here are the answers.
too
many different operations
That's why we
read in the discussion list:
qualified personnel needed bureaucracy timeliness is a further burden for librarians increasing load of work high number of requests no rules and standards for requests, time, method of delivery the best library web in the world doesn't solve ILL problems /technology is not enough to help ILL services to take-off /technology can not substitute human contribution
After simplifying payment procedures, reducing organisation gaps, solving copyright difficulties, ILL finds a kind of natural barrier, the book. The book is an object, it is a material reality, it has a physical presence that resists to any change of status. Document delivery
services manage electronic texts and electronic transmission of them, but
ILL still deals with books, with information
as a thing.
Why so many words for ILL? Because we do not have figures, at the moment Because we need to understand it better In the near
future, some of these words will disappear from the dictionary of librarians
to make room for other words, for other themes.
I wish to thank for their words and their ideas Paolo Baldi, Paolo Bellini, Vanni Bertini, Monica Berzacola, Gianluigi Betti, Domenico Bogliolo, Monica Boccato, Elena Boretti, Paola Cassanelli, Evelina Ceccato, Manuela Colombi, Gianni Colussi, Valentina Comba, Liliana De Bernardis, Maria Teresa De Gregori, Elizabeth Eastwood, Riccardo Ferrari, Elisabetta Francioni, Laura Frigerio, Giuseppe Giardio, Claudio Gnoli, Emanuela Lenti, Gianfranco Maggi, Stefania Manzi, Elisabetta Marinoni, Gabriele Mazzitelli, Marco Melloni, Maurizo Messina, Tiziana Nordio, Carlo Paravano, Beppe Pavoletti, Giulia Pili, Delia Pitto, Dionilla Pizzi, Flora Raffa, Maria Stella Rasetti, Marina Reppini, Serena Sangiorgi, Michele Santoro, Antonio Scolari, Stefano Sella, Giovanni Solimine, Anna Maria Tammaro, I. Truccolo, Maurizio Vivarelli |
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