Universal Availability of Publications Core Activity

7th Interlending and Document Supply International Conference

PROVIDING ACCESS THROUGH CO-OPERATION

The 7^th International Conference on Interlending & Document Supply brought together participants from 16 countries to discuss new developments and common concerns surrounding the Conference's theme, "providing access through co-operation".

Co-operation is sometimes called partnership, strategic alliance, or simply sharing, but whatever we call it, it remains fundamental to interlibrary loan, document delivery and co-operative access to electronic resources. The Conference explored many of the varied strands of resource-sharing, from end-user access and consortial resource sharing, to the role of the ISO ILL Protocol standard and a description of some of the many document delivery projects currently underway. A session on monographs explored the challenges that e-books bring to the ILL department, and looked at Web-based alternatives to traditional book lending. Reports on national systems were offered from Russia, Portugal, Hungary and the host nation, Slovenia, while the results of the major Australian ILL Benchmarking Study were also presented for the first time to an international audience.

A major publisher offered a publisher's view of international document supply, and the importance of continued discussion with the publishing community on matters of shared concern was illustrated by a two-hour debate between speakers from both the library and the publishing world.

The published proceedings include a transcript of that excellent recorded debate which makes interesting and stimulating reading, together with 28 of the presented papers. Those librarians who participated in the Conference enjoyed a week of stimulating professional presentations and discussion, not to mention wonderful social events and beautiful October weather. Those who did not attend are invited to read the published proceedings, which underline the diverse and dynamic nature of interlending and document supply activities worldwide. Everyone involved in ILL is also encouraged to watch for an announcement of the 8^th Conference in the series which is already being planned for October 2003.

The proceedings, which include full abstracts, index and speakers' photos, are available from

The papers are also available at: http://www.ifla.org/VI/2/conf/ljubljana-conf.htm

Full details of the Programme, Participants, Sponsors and the Photo Gallery can be found at : http://www2.arnes.si/~ljnuk4/ilds/