Universal Availability of Publications (UAP): A Programme to Improve the National and International Provision and Supply of Publications 9783111635309, 9783598203879

Citation preview

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen MEACAYHAPOAHASI eAepamw En6jiHOTeHHbix AccoiwauHfi H yipewAeHHit

I FLA Publications 25

Maurice Line Stephen Vickers

Universal Availability of Publications (UAP) A programme to improve the national and international provision and supply of publications

K-G-Saur München · New York · London · Paris 1983

IFLA Publications edited by Willem R.H.Koops This volume is published under the auspices and with permission of Unesco Recommended catalog entry: Line, Maurice Universal availability of publications (UAP) / a programme to improve the national and international provision and supply of publications; by Maurice Line and Stephen Vickers. - New York etc.: K. G. Saur, 1983. - 139 p.; 21. cm. (IFLA Publications; 25) ISBN 3-598-20387-X

CIP-Kurztitelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek Line, Maurice: Universal availability of publications (UAP) : a programme to improve the national and internat, provision and supply of pubi. / Maurice Line and Stephen Vickers. - München; New York ; London ; Paris : Saur, 1983. (IFLA publications ; 25) ISBN 3-598-20387-X NE: Vickers, Stephen:; International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions: IFLA publications

ISSN 0344-6891 (IFLA publications) © 1983 by Unesco / International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, The Netherlands Published by K. G. Saur Verlag KG, München AU rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without permission in writing from the editor. Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany by Hain Druck GmbH, Meisenheim/Glan ISBN 3-598-20387-X

CONTENTS

5

Preface 1.

2.

11

INTRODUCTION:

THE BACKGROUND TO THE UAP PROGRAMME

Objectives of the Present Book

13

Development of the UAP Concept and Programme

14

UAP Research Studies

16

The Structure of this Book

18

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF UAP Definition and Scope of UAP

19 19 19

Scope of UAP The Need for Availability

20

The need for publications

20

The need for improvement

22

Agents and Vehicles of Availability

25

Suppliers of publications

25

The future role of technology

26

The Dimensions of UAP

3.

13

ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY:

28

THE USER'S ANGLE

Introduction

32 32

Definition of 'users'

32

Obstacles to availability

34

Studying the User

35

6 The need for support from users

35

Pre-requisites to user studies

36

Categories of user

36

Assessing information needs

38

Potential users

38

The handicapped user

40

Ethnic and linguistic minorities

41

Non-conventional Media and the User

41

Audiovisual media

41

Microform

41

Electronic text

42

The appropriate use of different media

42

Education in the Use of Information Resources The Professional and the User The importance of professionals

4.

42 43 43

Professional education

44

Evaluation of libraries and information services

44

The need for user orientation

45

National planning of information services

45

THE PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY OF PUBLICATIONS

47

Introduction

47

Authorship

48

Printing

49

Publishing

50

Copyright

52

Distribution

52

Import problems

54

Automation of distribution

56

Acquisition by Libraries and Other Information Providers

56

Coordination in Production and Supply

58

7 5.

THE ACQUISITION OF PUBLICATIONS The Need for Action

59 59

The limitations of local collections: growing demand, growing output, growing cost and shrinking budgete Extending resources Acquisition for positive availability

62

National Acquisition Policies and Systems

63

The coverage of a national acquisitions policy

6.

59 61

63

Requirements for Effective Systems

65

Mechanics of Collection

67

Possible Types of Acquisition System

68

Centralized aquisition

68

Concentration on a few libraries

70

Regional distribution of responsibilities

70

Decentralized acquisition

71

The choice between models

71

KEEPING PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE The Need to Ensure Permanent Availability

72 72

The Concept of Repositories

73

The Organisation and Functions of Repositories

75

Geographical coverage

75

Coverage by subject

75

Coverage by type of institution

76

Active and passive repositories

76

The distribution of duplicates

76

Acquisition and retention

77

Conservation

77

Collections in private hands

77

Finance and management

78

Requirements for Effective Systems

78

Ownership of material

78

Management capability

79

Relegation issues

79

User needs

80

8 Possible Models of Repository Systems

81

National repository with voluntary deposit

81

Network of local and regional repositories

82

Distributed repository function

82

Preferred types of repository system

83

Conclusions

7.

80

Single national repository with mandatory deposit

INTERLENDING, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL The Need for Action

83

85 85

Interlending as an essential ingredient in national plans

86

The need for systematic planning

87

Policies and Systems

87

Requirements for Effective Interlending

88

Satisfaction rate

88

Speed of supply

89

Costs

91

Other considerations

92

The Organization of National Interlending Systems

94

Possible Interlending Systems

94

Concentration on a single collection

95

Concentration on a few libraries

96

Planned allocation among selected libraries

96

Unplanned decentralized access

96

Combined concentration and decentralization

8.

85

Factors inhibiting interlending

97

International Interlending

97

Conclusions

99

SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF PUBLICATION Introduction

100 100

Official Publications

100

Non-conventional Publications

101

Rare and Valuable Publications

102

9

9.

Printed Music

103

Ephemera

103

Maps

104

Non-Book Media

10t

Electronic Text

105

CONCLUSIONS Introduction

106 106

Obstacles to Availability

106

Basic Requirements of UAP

107

National Information Planning and Development National cooperation and coordination

108 109

International Cooperation

110

The Need for Research

111

Planning for the Future

112

Agents of Action

113

Conclusion: a Call for Action

115

APPENDIX 1 Bibliography

117

APPENDIX 2 Recommendations adopted at the Unesco/IFLA International Congress on Universal Availability of Publications

131

11

PREFACE This book aims to introduce the concept of Universal Availability of Publications, to describe its various components, and to indicate action that is needed to improve availability.

It is a basic introduction, not an

authoritative and comprehensive work, which would have had to be many times the size.

Inevitably each aspect is treated rather generally, but detailed

reports on most aspects have been published and are available separately. For reasons of brevity and simplicity, references have been kept to a minimum: a full bibliography relating to all the facets of UAP would be a large document in its own right.

The book follows very closely the text of the Main Working Document prepared by the IFLA International Office for UAP on contract to Unesco for the Unesco/IFLA International Congress on UAP held at Paris in May 1982, and IFLA is grateful to Unesco for permission to use the Main Working Document in this way.

The Main Working Document benefited from the ideas, suggestions and

sometimes additions of several individuals in Unesco, IFLA, and other bodies invited to send observers to the Preparatory Committee for the Congress, and this book has inherited these benefits. is the responsibility of the authors. Maurice Line Stephen Vickers June 1982

Nevertheless, the text as it stands

13

1: INTRODUCTION: THE BACKGROUND TO THE UAP PROGRAMME Information is a vital human resource. form.

Much information is in published

Much published information is not available when and where it is

required.

It is on these three beliefs that the programme of Universal

Availability of Publications - UAP - is founded. Objectives of the Present Book This book has two main objectives.

Firstly, it aims to draw attention to the

importance of the availability of published information for economic, social, educational and personal development, and to the serious nature and scale of unavailability.

If action currently being undertaken to remedy the situation

is a measure of the recognition of its importance, it would seem that it still has to be generally recognized as a significant problem.

The notable

improvements in the past two or three decades in bibliographic control, wholly laudable and necessary as they are, do not help to make the publications themselves more available.

Indeed, they can be a source of

frustration as more and more users become aware of the existence of more and more potentially useful material more and more quickly after its publication while systems to provide that material are far less advanced.

Bibliographic

access must be matched by the availability of publications, and UAP is an essential companion to UBC. Secondly, the book attempts to identify and discuss the various requirements for improved availability. wide-ranging. relevant.

As a concept UAP is very

There are few areas of librarianship to which it is not

This book cannot pretend to be exhaustive: it does not, for

example, consider the detailed role of all categories of library, nor the

14 particular problems of all categories of publication, each of which need specific study.

Rather, its aim is to focus attention on the major issues

involved and to provide a broad framework within which individual aspects can be pursued as necessary. Since improved availability depends upon certain basic functions and their efficient execution, the book is structured primarily by this approach.

In

each chapter dealing with functions, the elements of each are identified and the requirements analysed, especially in terms of necessary action, and possible solutions are suggested.

UAP, if it is to have any practical

meaning, must be action-oriented. The two objectives mentioned above are essentially the same as those that led to the holding of the Unesco/IFLA International Congress on UAP in Paris in May 1982.

The same considerations of structure and content that applied

to the preparation of the Main Working Document for the Congress by the IFLA International Office for UAP under contract to Unesco apply here.

The text

of this book is essentially similar, and in some parts identical, to that document.

By publishing the book after the Congress, it has been posible to

take into account the deliberations and recommendations of the Congress.

It

is also hoped that the book's inclusion in the series IFLA Publications will enable the ideas it contains to reach a much wider audience. Development of the UAP Concept and Programme The interrelationship between UBC and UAP has already been stated.

It was

the UBC programme that prompted Donald Urquhart, the first Director-General of the British Library Lending Division and Chairman of IFLA's Committee on International Lending and Union Catalogues, to state the need for a parallel concept, and Maurice Line, then Secretary of the Committee on International Lending, to translate the concept into the beginnings of a programme.

The

first formal recognition of the need for serious attention to be devoted to the availability of publications occurred in 1973 at IFLA's 39th Annual Council meeting in Grenoble, when the theme was UBC.

The following statement

was put forward by the Committee on International Lending and Union Catalogues : (i) that efforts to establish Universal Bibliographic Control will increase the demand on interlending services; (ii) that in consequence the drive for UBC should be linked with a drive to improve international interlibrary services;

15 (iii) that in particular each country should aim to have, besides a national bibliography, a national centre or centres which will arrange to provide to other national centres on request a loan or a photocopy of any item published in the c o u n t r y . ^ In the following year a more significant statement, embodying a fundamental principle of UAP, was made by the same Committee: As an essential element in any programme of national and international planning, and as a natural concomitant of Universal Bibliographic Control, efforts should be made both within each country and between countries to improve access to publications, by increasing the availability and speed of interlending services and by developing simple and efficient procedures. The ultimate aim should be to ensure that all individuals throughout the world should be able to obtain for personal use any publication, wherever or whenever published, either in original or in copy. (2) The term Universal Availability of Publications was adopted, and UAP was included in IFLA's Medium Term Programme 1 9 7 5 - 8 0 . ^

In 1977 I FLA

established a Committee with Wim Koops as chairman and consisting of representatives of the main relevant areas of IFLA to formulate and provide a programme for UAP.

The Committee, with minor changes in membership,

subsequently became the formal Steering Committee for UAP.

In 1979 the

professional programmes of IFLA were restructured and placed under the supervision of a Programme Management Committee, with the responsibility of generally coordinating and supervising the programmes and the resources required to carry them out.

The former Steering Committee, again with a

number of changes to ensure balanced representation, became an Advisory Committee. Further impetus was given to the programme in 1978 when UAP was the theme of IFLA's annual Council meeting in Strbske Pleso.

All Sections and

Divisions of IFLA were asked to consider how they might contribute to the development of the programme and how in turn the furetherance of UAP might affect their work and aims.

(2) IFLA Annual 1973. Munich: Verlag Dokumentation, 1974. IFLA Annual 1974. Munich: Verlag Dokumentation, 1975. IFLA. Medium-Term Programme. The Hague: IFLA, 1976.

16 Initial work on UAP took place within the IFLA Office for International Lending, established at the British Library Lending Division in 1975.

In

June 1979 a full-time staff member, funded entirely through IFLA, was appointed to work on the UAP programme.

The functions, staffing and

financing of the programme were then separated from those of the Office for International Lending, and to formalize this separation the Programme Management Committee decided in December 1980 that the focus for the UAP programme should be formally designated an International Office for UAP, in line with the International Office for UBC. Until recently, most activity has taken place within IFLA. However, since UAP goes well beyond the sphere of libraries, publishers, booksellers, archivists and other information personnel have been brought into discussions.

Unesco has also taken a keen interest in its development, and

recognized it formally in its programme and Budget 1979-80.

Unesco's

interest is evidenced by its funding of a number of research projects and, most significantly, by its sponsorship of the Unesco/IFLA International Congress on UAP, which took place in Paris in May 1982. The UAP programme concentrated initially on publicity and research. Extensive publicity was and is essential to bring the problem and the need for action to the attention of all concerned, from the publisher to the reader, but especially to librarians, and even more especially to responsible government bodies.

Publicity has been achieved by lecture and papers at

conferences, published articles and leaflets.

The bibliography on UAP

(Appendix 1) now contains over 90 references. UAP Research Studies To provide information on the present situation, analyse problems and identify solutions, research projects covering the following areas were undertaken between 1977 and 1981: -

The supply of publications through commercial channels, mainly to libraries.

-

National acquisition policies and programmes.

-

National interlending systems.

-

The international provision and supply of publications.

17 -

The permanent retention of material by libraries. The availability of publications in individual countries. The reports of these projects, which themselves take account of a wide

range of relevant studies and activities undertaken by IFLA, Unesco and other organizations, form much of the basis for the following chapters. During the conduct of the research it became clear that while weaknesses and failures in availability were only too apparent, statistical evidence was often wanting, because few countries or organizations had conducted, or felt it necessary to conduct, studies of the extent and nature of weaknesses in the system.

Too often organizations and individuals had reconciled

themselves to poor supply, which they evidently took for granted, in the same way as physical undernourishment has become accepted as a fact of life for much of the world's population.

Neither in the case of undernourishment nor

in that of unavailability of publications is statistical evidence necessary to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation, which is a matter of common experience, but common experience is not by itself sufficient for sound research.

The approach adopted in most of the research studies was to

conduct a thorough literature review, supplement the information so gathered from personal knowledge, correspondence or questionnaires, and on the basis of this knowledge carry out a close analysis of each aspect of availability and identify various models worthy of consideration. The research conducted does not of course pretend to be exhaustive, but it nevertheless deals with the major aspects of UAP, and the analytical approach adopted proved valuable in structuring the problems and subjecting possible solutions to close scrutiny.

Further studies will doubtless be necessary, in

individual countries, of particular categories of material, and into special problems or aspects. If the research conducted to date constitutes the first phase of activity, the International Congress on UAP can be regarded as the second phase, in that it exposed the issues to a wide audience which was able to consider them and arrive at recommendations. initiation of action.

The most important is the next one: the

18 The Structure of this Book The structure of the present book is explained towards the end of Chapter 2. Because of the interrelationships between the various elements of availability, and because of the need to see availability as a whole, there is inevitably some repetition between chapters, but in order that each chapter should form a more or less coherent entity little attempt has been made to remove this repetition.

19

2: THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF UAP Definition and Scope of UAP Universal Availability of Publications is both an objective and a programme. The objective is the widest possible availability of published material (that is, recorded knowledge issued for public use) to intending users, wherever and whenever they need it, as an essential element in economic, social, technological, educational and personal development.

To work towards this

objective, the programme aims to improve availability at all levels, from the local to the international, and at all stages, from the publication of new material to the retention of last copies, both by positive action and by the removal of barriers. Scope of UAP 'Publication' is defined as recorded knowledge issued for public use.

It

thus includes, as well as printed materials (including report literature) whether in conventional form or microform, so-called "non-book media"*, and electronically-stored texts. also included.

Printed archives, especially record sets, are

UAP is not concerned with information recorded, stored and

transmitted in other ways.

It thus excludes manuscripts, confidential

documents, data banks of (e.g.) statistical data, and information transmitted by word of mouth.

*

This term is not wholly satisfactory, but the common alternative "audiovisual media" is semantically less satisfactory. The most precise term is possibly "non-print documents", but this is not in general use.

20 The term 'public use' acknowledges the fact that restrictions may be imposed upon the availability of some publications.

Some are confidential -

to governments, industries, or academic or research institutions - and this confidentiality must be respected.

Some may become available for public use

only after a number of years. Some are old, rare or fragile, and although there are ways in which they may be made available these may have limitations placed upon them.

Further, availability must be achieved with due respect to

the legitimate rights of authors, publishers and others concerned with the production and dissemination of information. Thus ÜAP is relevant to all those involved with the production, storage, dissemination, conservation and use of publications, from the author, publisher and distributor, through library, information and archives personnel to the user, the ultimate beneficiary.

It concerns most of the

activities of a conventional library, but only that part of the activities of a documentation centre or information service related to the collection and supply of publications. The Meed for Availability The need for publications UAP rests on two firmly held beliefs: that information is essential for development; and that present systems and procedures for providing information are inadequate. Few would dispute that information is essential for development, though there is often a surprising lack of awareness of its importance.

Development

planners, policy-makers and managers may not always be aware of the place, nor convinced of the value, of information, nor may they make use of information services and systems, which may therefore not be considered as a priority area and receive the necessary support. It is difficult to produce direct evidence of ways in which information has contributed to development and the solution of practical problems, or to instance cases where the lack of information has held up development, but it would be generally agreed that the modern world relies increasingly on an adequate supply and rapid flow of information.

There can be few sections of

21 the community and few individuals, regardless of their location, social condition or level of intellectual achievement, that do not feel some need for the availability of accurate, timely and useful information. Information is of course transmitted in many ways, of which publication is only one.

To this extent ÜAP is part of a much wider programme of "Universal

Access to Information".

However, publications of various kinds are still a

main vehicle for information, and for many forms of information by far the dominant vehicle. The functions that book production and supply serve, and the benefits to be derived by users from improved availability, may be summarized as follows: To develop and maintain literacy; this is a fundamental function, without which individuals are unable to derive direct profit from printed information. To improve and further the learning process, in order to equip individuals with a broad body of knowledge and the desire to extend it so that they can play a full and constructive role in society, both as citizens and as workers. To make possible continuing self-education, in order to help people respond to rapid social changes, solve immediate problems in their daily life and work, profit from leisure and recreation, enrich their personal lives through an awareness of the cultural heritages of their own and other countries, and keep themselves informed of relevant national and local policies and developments. To aid research by communicating results, synthesizing new data with known facts, and avoiding the duplication of work and waste of resources. To provide reliable data for the planning of social and economic measures and of improved techniques in industry, agriculture, medicine, etc. To assist governments, officials and planners in decision making, the formulation of economic, social and technological development plans, and the use of national and other resources to maximum effect.

22 However, users are not the sole beneficiaries.

Improvements in

availability are also of importance to: Authors, who wish their work to be more widely disseminated. Publishers, booksellers, and others concerned with the production and distribution of publications, whose markets will be extended as barriers are removed and demand increases. Libraries, archives and information services, which wish to serve their users better. Governments and public bodies, which need a literate and informed population. All others who are concerned, in whatever way in the dissemination of published information. The need for improvement The growing recognition of the vital importance of information in the modern world is only one of a number of factors that are leading to an increase in the demand for publications.

Other factors include the continuing growth in

the volume of publications in an increasing range of formats, and the extension of education, both formal and informal, all over the world, ranging from literacy programmes to an increase in research and development. Intending users need to know what has been written, where it has been published, when and in what form.

To meet these needs much attention has

been focused on improvements to bibliographic control.

IFLA, with the

support of Unesco, has been at the forefront of these developments.

Its

programme of UBC aims 'to make universally and promptly available, in a form which is inernationally acceptable, basic bibliographic data on all publications issued in all c o u n t r i e s ' ^ ^ .

Although much remains to be done,

there have been massive improvements in bibliographic control in the last two decades in coverage, in quality, and in modes and speed of access.

A

scientist in a developed country can have at his fingertips a vast range of bibliographic references on topics of interest to him

(1)

These

Anderson, Dorothy. Universal Bibliographic Control. Dokumentation, 1974.

improvements

Munich: Verlag

23 have inevitably led to a greater demand for publications, yet the supply of publications has lagged far behind bibliographic access, in quantity, quality and speed.

This gap needs to be closed.

UAP aims at ensuring that access to

bibliographic information on publications is matched by the availability of the publications themselves, and is thus the logical and necessary complement to UBC. Making publications available in response to demand is the main function of publishers, the book trade and libraries; it is also a secondary function of many other institutions such as documentation centres and information services.

Improvements are needed at all levels.

The publisher, by selecting from unsolicited contributions and commissioning others, is responsible for the quality and quantity of works that are published. published works.

He also publicizes, markets and disseminates the

In many countries publicity is inadequate and individuals

and institutions are often unable to identify potentially useful material; delivery times from publishers can be very slow, often taking many months. In no country can the indigenous publishing industry meet the needs of all sections of the population - nor indeed should it attempt to do so; in nearly all countries there is extensive reliance on imported material, and this presents additional problems of customs formalities, import and currency controls and further delays. Booksellers supply both the public direct and libraries and other information services.

In many countries channels for the distribution and

sale of both national imprints and imported publications fail to reach large sections of the community, particularly in rural areas. The availability of past, and many present, publications can be assured mainly through libraries.

In many countries much of the population has no,

or very inadequate, access to libraries and other forms of information service.

Availability must begin at the local level and the role of local

services in improving availability is crucial.

However, even the largest

libraries, with good levels of funding, can acquire only a fraction of world output.

Increases in the cost of publications and the declining purchasing

power of many libraries and similar organizations mean that their ability to meet the growing needs of their users is continually being reduced

The

systematic provision of material additional to that held locally is needed

24 within each country to provide good levels of national coverage. Responsibility for acquiring national imprints for subsequent national and international availability must lie with the country of publication. Sufficient foreign material to meet a significant and economic proportion of demand should also be acquired within each country.

Nor is it only a

question of money; even when publications can be obtained free or very cheaply, there may not be adequate staff to seek them out and process them, nor accommodation to house them.

Few countries have well organized and

efficiently functioning systems of provision. Since no organization can meet all information needs from its own resources, means must be devised to enable users to obtain publications from elsewhere.

National systems for the supply of publications between

organizations - interlending systems - are therefore required.

Interlending

has seen large increases in recent years, but in few countries has serious and systematic attention been paid to it as a national problem.

In most

countries a high proportion of needs that cannot be met locally are not satisfied, delays are often unacceptably long, and demand itself is constrained by low expectations. Just as no library can meet all the demands placed upon it, so no country can be self-sufficient in information provision, and international availability must be improved.

In particular every country must be able to

supply its own publications, if only as a last resort, to any other country in the world. It is essential also that publications are retained to meet future needs, and this is one of the main roles of libraries and archives.

Some

publications may be used to the point where they are worn out, and lack of accommodation is leading many libraries to dispose of material.

There is a

serious danger that some publications may be permanently lost to a country, and even to the world.

This has happened extensively in the past.

Without

provision for ensuring that 'last copies' are retained and conserved availability can actually decline. Availability is at present far from universal¡ many publications are very hard to obtain, and many people do not have access to publications at all. Demand, at present constrained in many countries by poor supply, will

25 continue to increase, especially in developing countries.

If, as is the

case, existing systems and procedures cannot cope adequately now, they will be even less able to cope in the future unless immediate and continuing action is taken to accommodate demands that will incease in volume and complexity. Agents and Vehicles of Availability Suppliers of publications Publications may be collected and supplied through various channels.

The

traditional channel is the conventional library - public, academic, or special; this collects publications to serve its users, who may be very large in number (as in the case of public libraries) or restricted in number and range of interests (as in the case of an industrial library). usually able to make copies of documents in their collections.

Archives are Documentation

centres and other kinds of information centre may also have substantial collections, from which they provide information services and sometimes copies of items on request.

The borderline between traditional libraries and

documentation centres is becoming less and less distinct. Organizations providing bibliographic services may offer to supply on demand copies of publications, mostly journal articles, as a back up to the references that users obtain through computer searches; the supply may be from their own collection, as in the case of the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia, USA, or the organization may act as an intermediary and obtain items from other collections (usually academic or special libraries) with which it has made arrangements; Lockheed, the System Development Corporation and the European Space Agency are examples of database operators that work in this way. Special types of document supplier, midway between publishers and libraries, are organizations such as the US National Technical Information Service, which acquires very large quantities of report literature, converts it to microfiche, and supplies copies on demand (usually in microfiche) to requesters. Finally, publishers themselves may supply copies of their work, not only through normal commercial channels but direct to libraries or users.

Journal

publishers have quite commonly provided offprints of articles in the past,

26 but supplies have been limited; in future, articles from journals that are stored in a machine-readable form may be reproduced on demand, whether by individual publishers or, more probably, by a group of publishers sharing technical facilities or acting through an intermediate agent. Apart from journal articles, where there may be a gradual but significant shift in the next decade to on-demand supply from selected journals in electronic form, mainly European language scientific and technical journals, and report literature, most of which is supplied in microform from a limited number of centres, the main collectors and suppliers of publications are and will continue to be libraries, and the great majority of demands for publications seem likely to be made in and through libraries, which can be expected to adapt to and make use of changing technology.

The gradual

erosion of distinctions between various kinds of supplier will almost certainly accelerate, with publishers taking on some of the roles of libraries and vice versa, and with increasing contact and cooperation between the sectors. The future role of technology A key question is whether the future production and dissemination of publications will be so radically affected by technology that any plan of action that is at present conceived will soon be overtaken by developments. Technology will undoubtedly affect the means by which availability is achieved, but it is important to emphasize that the concept of UAP is one that is permanently valid. Electronic technology is developing fast, and exciting possibilities are opening up for the future storage and transmission of publications.

It is

technically possible to store text in machine-readable form, of which the videodisc currently appears to offer the greatest promise, and transmit it over telephone or dedicated lines or by satellite to remote terminals at which it can be read or printed out.

Original text may be input

electronically, or existing printed text can be captured for electronic storage of this kind, and laser printers can produce high quality prints at high speed and increasingly low cost.

27 The economics of data capture, storage, transmission and printing are still uncertain, even in developed countries, and worldwide extension of the technology is unlikely to take place for some years.

Moreover it seems

likely not only that this technology will be limited mainly to journals, especially scientific and technical journals, but that for many even of these the electronic version will exist side by side with conventional text.

printed

Electronic technology can be used in a more limited way, to store

journals and print out articles on demand for transmission by mail or other conventional ways; this could give the publisher an increased role in the supply of publications.

On-line transmission to remote terminals where it

occurs is likely to be mostly to libraries and other institutions, since laser printers will be beyond the reach of most individual

organizations.

Although prediction for more than few years ahead is impossible, libraries and other information services seem likely to have a continuing role not only in the supply of conventional publications, which will still be produced in very large quantities, but also in the provision of electronically transmitted texts. A recent Delphi study^ 1 ' yielded the following forecasts: . By the year 2000, 50$ of existing indexing/abstracting services will be available only in electronic form.

The 90$ level of conversion will

not be reached until later.

. Existing periodicals (in science and technology, social sciences and the humanities) will not reach even the

25$ level of conversion until

after 2000.

. By 1990, 25$ of existing reference books will only be available in electronic form.

The 50$ level of conversion will only occur after

2000.

. By 1995, 50$ of newly issued technical reports will only be available in electronic form.

^^

The 90$ level will be reached after 2000.

Lancaster, F.W., Drasgow, L. and Marks, E. The impact of a paperless society on the research library of the future. Final report to the National Science Foundation. (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library Science, 1980).

28 When it is considered that these comments refer only to research literature, they reinforce the view that the vast majority of publications will continue to appear in conventional form for at least 20 years from now. The Dimensions of UAP UAP is multi-dimensional, and can be approached in a number of different ways.

The main approaches are by:

- Functions: publishing, the distribution of publications, acquisition by purchase, exchange, gift and other means, the lending of publications either in the original or, within the terms of prevailing copyright legislation, as copies, and the retention of publications to meet future needs. - Levels: local, regional within countries, national, international (both regional and worldwide). - Institutions: individual organizations, local (state) governments, national governments, professional associations (national and international), international associations and organizations. Whatever approach is adopted, the elements in each are of course interrelated.

Action taken at one level will influence action at another

level, and actions by one institution may affect actions by other institutions.

Functions are also closely interrelated: for example, policies

relating to national interlending systems are or should be closely linked with acquisition and retention policies. It follows from the identification of needs and deficiencies noted above that improvements to availability depend upon certain basic functions and their efficient execution by various sections of the information community. This book is therefore structured primarily by this approach.

In each of the

sessions the need for action is presented, the elements of each function are identified, requirements are analysed, especially in terms of the problems to be overcome and necessary action, and possible solutions are suggested.

The

better performance of these functions has as its aim the improved availability of publications to meet the needs of users.

Users must

therefore be considered as an integral part of the total system: functions

must not be treated in isolation from those they are intended to serve. Users can also make a valuable contribution to recognizing the need for and assessing the suitability of a programme of action. There is a danger when functions are treated as separate activities that interrelationships between them and between levels and agents of action may not receive due emphasis. The relationships between functions may be stated in simplified terms thus: Publishers and booksellers distribute material to individuals, and to libraries and other information services, which constitute the main or even the sole market for some publications and undoubtedly extend the market for others.

The activities and efficiency of the book trade affect the ability

of libraries and other information services to acquire material, and publishers may wish to exercise some control over the multiple use of their products. Since local acquisition must be supported by the systematic and effective acquisition of additional material, both indigenous and imported, to meet further needs, interlending is therefore required.

The interlending

system

may be largely determined by existing acquisition policies, or may itself determine those policies. Few libraries and information services can expect to retain all the publications they have acquired (some perhaps as part of a national acquisitions policy).

Their retention within countries to meet possible

future needs must be planned systematically, and they must be made availble for interlending. Levels of action are similarly interlinked.

National initiatives may be

needed to meet international responsibilities, international

compatibility

between systems and procedures may be needed, special strengths in one country may be relied upon by neighbouring countries, and in particular developing countries will have to rely heavily upon services offered by developed countries until their own situation improves. will in turn influence local decisions.

National initiatives

For example, a national acquisition

policy may require individual institutions to collect particular categories

30 of material, and the existence of national interlending collections may enable individual institutions to concentrate more on meeting specifically local needs. Improved availability of publications is of special interest to developing countries, with little indigenous publishing, inadequate distribution, and poorly funded libraries and information centres.

However, inadequate

availability is also of great concern to developed countries, because although they have much more money they also make far more demands, and it is no accident that several developed countries are at present considering as a matter of some urgency how to improve document provision and supply. Moreover, because the great disparity in provision between developed and developing countries will lead the latter to depend very heavily for some years to come on the former, the improved availability of publications in developed countries is essential if developing countries are to be served. Governments may exercise some control over the material published within a country.

Financial restrictions imposed by goverments may affect the ability

of booksellers to buy foreign material, and of libraries to use the services of foreign libraries.

Government policy may directly affect the provision of

library and information services, and budgetary allocations may largely determine their extent and efficiency.

Government policy may also determine

the structure of the communications network needed to support availability. Professional and learned associations can ensure that the needs of a profession as a whole are taken into account when policies and plans are formulated.

Their corporate voice can act as a strong influence when

representations are made for the improvement of services.

The translation of

policy into action will fall mostly to information professionals.

Benefits

can be secured within individual institutions and organizations, but publishers, booksellers and libraries exist in a symbiotic relationship. Cooperation and coordination between various institutions and sectors of the information community may be needed if progress is to be made on a broad front.

Their professional associations should meet to consider common action

that their members can take or that they can combine to press upon governments.

31 It is the aim therefore of this book to consider not only the basic elements of UAP, but also the action needed if improvements are to be secured and the appropriate agents of action. a programme of action.

As is emphasized several times, UAP is

32

3:

ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY: THE USER'S ANGLE

Introduction The ultimate objective of making publications available is to serve users, and book supply, acquisition, interlending and retention for continuing use are all means to the end of providing users with publications containing the information they require; the chain of availability that begins with authors has users at its end.

The development of effective systems both requires an

understanding of the needs of the population as a whole and must be designed to serve sections of the population according to predetermined priorities. Every individual in a country should be considered as a user or potential user, and the system should ideally be such as to be capable of meeting his needs.

Realistically, the particular types of information resources most

fitting to a country need to be identified and their organization for use planned, without neglecting the requirements of individuals that fall outside these categories. Definition of 'users' The word 'user' as employed here encompasses also potential users - all potential beneficiaries of a national information system, in effect the vast majority of the population.

The range of users and their needs is admirably

expressed in a statement issued a few years ago: "Users are individuals, each with unique informational, educational, psychological and social needs.

A person may need 'practical knowledge' to

solve immediate problems in his daily life and work.

He may need

33 'professional knowledge* to further his continuing education.

Or he may need

'intellectual knowledge', the kind that furthers his understanding of the arts, humanities and. sciences, and which enriches his personal life.

Reading

for pleasure, pursuing an innovative idea or exploring knowledge just to satisfy one's innate curiosity, are other valid motives for reading, listening or looking.

In addition, people feel the need for ethical,

religions and philosophical insights. information and knowledge.

Organizations, like individuals, need

Business organizations need facts and data to

forecast a market, develop a new product or adapt a new technology. need information to improve and extend the learning process.

Schools

Research

organizations need information to synthesize new data with known facts as part of the creative process.

Government needs information at every level to

formulate plans, refine decision making, and help government workers to anticipate and resolve problems...

It is clear that library and information

needs are felt at all levels of society, regardless of an individual's location, social condition, or level of intellectual achievement.

Although

library and information needs... vary widely among people by age, ethnic origin, educational achievement, work assignment, géographie location, and many other factors, most people feel some dependence on the availability of accurate and useful information".

^

Various kinds of users are briefly considered below, but it is worth drawing special attention here to the mention in the statement above of government as a major user of information, since much of the support needed for the improvement of availability must come, directly or indirectly, from government sources.

^

National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (USA).

Toward a

national program for library and information services: goals for action. Washington, D C: National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, 1975.

34 Obstacles to availability While all publications should be as widely available to users as possible, decisions with regard to availability are not always in the hands of the suppliers or intermediaries such as librarians.

As already noted, some works

are confidential, and limitations may have to be placed on the extent to which, and the means by which, old, rare and fragile publications are made available. There are numerous obstacles to availability other than those intrinsic to the publications themselves. educational.

Some of the obstacles are social or

Many potential users, whose lives could be enriched in various

practical and cultural ways by access to published works, lack the motivation to seek access because their education has been inadequate to enable them to read, because of social conditioning or because the rewards are not obvious. Practical day to day needs such as food, clothing and shelter clearly have to take priority, and in pursuing these individuals may miss the opportunity of longer term improvement or better ultimate satisfaction of these everyday needs.

At a more advanced educational level, academic staff in a developing

country may have less motivation to be comprehensively informed in their subject fields than in a developed country where competition may be more intensive.

Even when users are motivated they may not have enough knowledge

of the existence of the information system or of its working. Economic factors also may inhibit the pursuit of knowledge.

Quite apart

from the time required to gain access to information, money is needed to buy books in a shop, to travel to consult books in a library or to pay for photocopies of journal articles.

Shortage of acquisition funds in libraries

obviously restricts availability. Physical obstacles include distance, especially for people in rural areas or small towns with few information resources of their own.

Such obstacles

are greatly magnified for people whose mobility is reduced by physical or other handicap.

These are discussed in a following section.

Other forms of

handicap such as deafness, or in particular blindness, may constitute very severe barriers to availability.

35 Language too can constitute a barrier.

Even the few 'world languages' by

no means offer access to all necessary or desirable information.

More

seriously, people who speak only minority languages - languages that may be spoken only by relatively few even within a country, and that may not be used at all for published works - may be barred from access to nearly all of the world's publications.

Aural and visual media and translations may be able to

reach such people; as stated earlier, 'publications' are not confined to printed matter. Some of the obstacles to availability indicated above are beyond the scope of UAP, which is concerned with the availability of publications once produced, but they illustrate the close connection between UAP and wider social, economic and educational concepts.

Obstacles specific to the UAP

concept are considered more fully in the following chapters.

Indeed, a UAP

programme of action can be seen mainly as a means to overcoming obstacles. Studying the User The need for support from users Libraries and other information sources, both individually and collectively, are means to the end of transferring information to users, who must be treated as part of the total system.

Although users realize that they often

cannot obtain the publications they want at the time they want them, and many of them express their concern, few are aware of the benefits to be derived from an improved service.

Frequently publications are not requested at all

because expectation of supply is poor or because long delays are anticipated. It is of little use to establish systems, even when they have the support of government legislation, if the arrangements do not work to the satisfaction of users.

Users need therefore to be informed of the full scale

of the problem, of the possibility of improvement and of means by which it might be achieved, and of ways in which they can help to ensure its achievement.

The active support of users, especially of learned and

professional bodies and those working in industry, may be vital to the development and acceptance of a system of improved availability. Unfortunately, although there are examples of major developments in which users have taken the initiative, they are rarely involved in the initial planning and design of systems.

Systems are usually started by

36 documentaliste, librarians, archivists and other information specialists.

It

is they who endeavour to persuade governments to initiate systems, and who have the technical knowledge to supervise their implementation.

They may

however have little practical experience in systematic analysis of user needs, and many even become so involved in the technicalities of implementation and operation that they are in danger of losing sight of users.

Many libraries and information services seem, to the user at any

rate, to be designed around librarians and information specialists rather than for users. Pre-requisites to user studies Most user studies to date have been confined to fairly small subsets of the population and to well-defined subject areas; many have been purely local or institutional.

No accepted methodology currently exists for surveying and

projecting user needs across an entire population.

Such an assessment of

needs presupposes detailed information on a country's demography, population characteristics, direction of future growth and so on. data are not always available.

Unfortunately such

While the use of demographic data for

planning health or transportation systems is common, this is not so in the case of the long-range planning of libraries and other information services. Data provide an essential foundation on which to build systems and a framework for setting priorities, making decisions and taking action. Verifiable facts and figures enable planners to weigh alternative courses of action logically, and provide a sound and valid basis on which to justify recommendations to governments. Categories of user A pre-requisite to successful systems design is the setting of objectives, and this includes the correct identification of target user groups.

A

library or information centre is likely to be successful only if it has identified its users and their needs adequately.

Needs for information may

have to be assessed before needs for publications can be identified. The first and most obvious group of users consists of the users of existing libraries and information services.

It is usually easy to study

their actual uses, and relatively easy to analyse their demands and the

37

extent to which they are satisfied, and to assess their reactions to the existing services.

Unfortunately it is much harder to assees their needs.

Many needs are not articulated into demands, and some may not even be felt by the user; it is a common experience for a user to recognize an information need only when the means for its satisfaction are made available. In studies of information requirements, it is usual to group users according to some major characteristic.

The characteristic chosen will

depend on local circumstances, but it may be a subject field, the organization for which individuals work, or the nature of their work.

The

needs, for example, of doctors working in the field are very different from those of hospital personnel or of medical researchers.

A multidimensional

framework of characteristics may be necessary in the case of libraries serving a broad clientele. This variety of needs may be exemplified by looking at different functions within agriculture.

The agricultural policy maker, concerned with the

allocation of resources, requires digests of statistics of production, consumption and so on.

The administrator is responsible for converting the

policy makers' decisions into procedures, and possibly also for the collection of data and for the preparation of digests for use by policy makers.

His information needs are both prescriptive and related to day to

day administration.

The researcher requires information on research carried

out elsewhere and detailed knowledge of his own national or local situation to enable him to apply expertise gained in other locations.

He may undertake

experiments and produce research reports of use to administrators, teachers and practitioners.

The teacher must draw on the results of research and

practice; journals and books enable him to keep up to date.

The student

obtains information from his teacher and from textbooks, usually recommended by the teacher.

The practitioner relies on the knowledge gained as a student

and on his accumulated experience.

He needs manuals and guides, especially

when introducing new methods, in order to reinforce any instructions he may have received from agricultural liaison officers.

Similar pictures may be

drawn for different functions in other disciplines and various environments.

38 Assessing information needs Once groups of information users have been categorized for purposes of national planning, their needs for information must be assessed in more detail.

Priorities should be set in accordance with the national plan for

economic and social development and a realistic assessment made of the resources that are likely to be available to implement changes and additions to existing information facilities. It can then be determined what data must be collected and investigations can be planned accordingly.

The data to be gathered should relate to

services that it will be possible to improve or introduce within a few years. The methods of data collection chosen must be both valid and practical, in relation both to the data to be collected and the resources available for their collection, and to the people whose needs are being surveyed. Potential users Since U3e of information resources is often very low in countries with underdeveloped information services, some effort must be made to obtain data on potential users as well as on the unstated needs of existing users. Otherwise it can all too easily be argued that services do not need improvement because few people use them; whereas the truth is that few people use them precisely because they are in dire need of improvement.

There are

many ways of obtaining and using information, and the monitoring of formal systems such as libraries can give only a very imperfect picture of need.

It

should be determined whether non-use of a service is due to personal reasons, to unawareness of the existence of a service, or to imperfections in the service that can be remedied.

It may be that no suitable service exists at

all. It is rarely useful to ask a potential user in general terms what sort of service he wants or whether he would use a hypothetical service, unless he is already aware of what services might be provided.

Very few people can

specify their information or library requirements in the abstract.

Further,

the inadequacies of an information supply system are not as a rule very obvious.

Potential users rarely leave records of their failures, yet

39 failures condition people as to what they may expect.

If the potential user

thinks a service is unlikely to supply the information he needs, he does not even try to obtain it. Non-users include not only those who are unaware of services, do not have access to them, do not know how to use them, or have no confidence in them, but those who do not know that they need information. ultimately a problem for the education system.

The last category is

The other problems need to be

dealt with by suitable publicity, the convenient siting of information resources (including where appropriate mobile libraries that travel to users), instruction in use, and the improvement of existing services or the creation of new ones.

Supply creates demand, and this requires that users

get what they want. Improvement in some cases requires a major investment in the development of information resources.

In others it can be achieved by better

organization and management.

For example, a study in the United K i n g d o m ^

showed that a large proportion of material required by users who did not locate that material was in fact on the shelves.

Failure to check the

shelves would have led to the belief that inadequacies of stock were the main cause of failure. Similarly, in academic institutions a large proportion of failures is due to inadequate duplication of items in heavy demand. It is often possible to increase availability substantially without a large increase in costs; but to see if this is possible it is necessary to know where and how failures occur.

In the past many librarians have

concentrated on the size of their collections rather than on the service they offer or the proportion of needs they satisfy.

Urquhart, D.J. and Irving, A. Access to libraries: a study in methodology. (British Library Research and Development Department. Report No 5431). Loughborough University, Department of Library and Information Studies, 1978.

40 The handicapped user As noted above, physical and other handicaps can constitute a major barrier to availability.

The problems posed by limited mobility can be to a large

extent overcome by bringing publications to users by means of mobile libraries and by loans or photocopies rather than by requiring that users come to booksellers or libraries.

Communications technology should in due

course reduce if not eliminate this barrier. Some handicaps, such as deafness and blindness, are more severe in that they make use of some kinds of information media impossible, and additional or substitute media have to be provided.

Sound films may be replaced by

films with subtitles for the deaf, and the printed page by braille or 'talking books' for the blind.

The partially sighted or old can often be

supplied with large type books or magnifying equipment.

However, all these

solutions require money, and in developing countries in particular the money devoted to basic printed material may be so short that it is difficult to justify expenditure on other media.

The problems of the handicapped are

therefore linked with economic obstacles. The same applies to forms of physical handicap that prevent not only the movement of users to publications but their ability to handle books or other media.

Special handling or projection equipment may be needed in such cases.

Mental handicap, the greatest fundamental barrier of all, may or may not be associated with various forms of physical handicap.

At its worst there

may be an inability to profit from any form of printed material.

Special

forms of publication, possibly somewhat similar to those produced for children, may be required, or audiovisual media that do not require reading skills. One general point is worth emphasizing.

Nearly all handicapped people are

prevented from taking part in many other human activities, physical or social, and they may also have much more time on their hands than those without disabilities.

The availability of publications is therefore often of

fundamental importance to their lives, not only making them much more bearable and enjoyable, but sometimes enabling them to educate themselves and work for their living.

Non-book media such as sound recordings and films

also assume special importance for the handicapped.

41 Most of what has been said above about the handicapped applies also to the old, who may have no special handicap but whose mobility, sight, and hearing and mental capacity may all gradually diminish with age. Ethnic and linguistic minorities Most countries have ethnic minorities, which can easily become isolated from the rest of the population because of different cultural backgrounds, different religions or, especially, different languages.

These can be

catered for fairly easily if they are large in number and concentrated geographically, since special library provision for them can then be justified.

This is however not always done, and in the case of smaller and

scattered minorities the problem of provision is much more severe.

In some

countries laudable attempts have been made to reach these people by the provision of literature on their own culture, material in their own languages, and relatively simple books in the language of the country that can help them to play a fuller part in their adopted land.

Some libraries

have recruited staff from the appropriate minority to encourage and aid use. However, the problem is a growing one, and still more needs to be done. Non-conventional Media and the User The printed page, whatever its limitations, has the immense advantage that it can be distributed anywhere and carried anywhere. to be used.

It requires no equipment

This is true of almost no other kind of published material.

Audiovisual media Audiovisual media obviously have limitations as to where and how they can be used.

Some of the limitations imposed by equipment have been greatly

reduced, for example by small portable sound cassette players.

Advances in

other areas can be expected, though they are unlikely to be as great; for example video-recordings, even if the equipment for playing them could be similarly miniaturized, would require more space for adequate viewing. Microform Microforms have been produced and used for several decades, and except in cases of occasional or quick consultation (eg of reference works) have generally proved unpopular, despite all their advantages of cheapness and

42 small size.

The main obstacles have proved to be the problem of combining

portability of reading devices with reasonable readability and cheapness, the difficulty of rapid scanning and extraction of relevant information compared with the printed page, and the unattractiveness of the medium for continuous reading.

Microforms are thus neither suited to leisure reading nor ideal for

much research use. Electronic text The problems associated with microforms may be magnified with text transmitted electronically for reading on a computer terminal.

Although

portable and compact terminals will in due course reduce the difficulties, it seems likely that both microforms and on-line access will be used mainly for certain types of information, not as a general substitute for the printed page, which will always be the prime medium of communication for text for most purposes.

Indeed, it is probable that electronic transmission will be

used as much to produce printed matter at the receiving end as for on-line reading. The appropriate use of different media Each form of publication and transmission has its special features, and it is important that these are properly exploited for the most appropriate purpose. No one medium can serve all purposes, and an important task is the identification and development of different media for different forms of matter, audiences and requirements. Education in the Use of Information Resources There is a well established and widespread belief amongst librarians that it is necessary for their users to be trained or instructed in the use of libraries.

Sometimes it would seem as if librarians have tried to mould

users to fit their libraries instead of seeing how far their libraries can be organized around the needs, habits and preferences of users.

Training in the

use of libraries should be the minimum that is necessary after all has been done to make libraries readily usable.

In any case, training in library use

is a very narrow concept, and it is gratifying that user education has broadened its meaning in the last decade or two and come to be regarded as a process of developing proficiency in the use of information resources.

It

M3 could be further extended to encompass feedback on the use and performance of libraries and information services with a view to their improvement and greater orientation to users. There is an increasing recognition that the ability to use information resources is an essential element in all education, and vital to the continuing process of self-education.

It should therefore be an integral

part of the whole education process from the earliest stages.

Since this

recognition is very recent and has scarcely begun to be reflected in practice, much remedial work is still necessary in secondary schools, higher education and libraries of all kinds to bring users up to a reasonable level of competence in information use. General aims and objectives for a programme of developing skills in information handling include facility in using local resources, awareness of national resources and ability to exploit them, and, above all, independence in information searching.

More precise aims and objectives may be formulated

for particular institutions, such as universities or industrial information units.

Libraries in colleges and universities can usually devote a good deal

more time and effort, preferably with the close cooperation of academic staff, to directing their users in the use of the library's resources and services than can, for example, a public library, which must cater for a wide range of individual requirements and where new users do not arrive in large groups at a given time. Schools and school libraries have a special responsibility if information use is to constitute part of the education process. readers and encourage reading.

They must attract

The full cooperation of teachers must be

obtained so that children learn by their own effort and initiative as well as by direct teacher instruction.

At the same time, they should aim to broaden

the reading of children beyond the strict confines of their lessons. The Professional and the User The importance of professionals It is upon professional information personnel that the success of library and information systems ultimately depends.

They must have full knowledge of

national and international resources and facilities, and the ability to

1)4 exploit them.

They must combine professional skills and management abilities

with an understanding of and receptiveness to their users. and experience are necessary to develop these capacities.

Both education The technical and

managerial aspects of library service are considered in other chapters.

It

is the aim here to consider attitudes. Professional education Ends must determine means.

Yet much professional education for library and

information work appears still to be concerned more with the inculcation of skills such as cataloguing and classification than with the users and the needs which these skills should be serving.

The concepts of use and

availability are rarely emphasized, nor are the skills that are taught always or necessarily the most appropriate for the purposes with which users are primarily concerned.

Library educators should consider how they can develop

in their students a concern with users, an understanding of them, and the desire and ability to orientate services towards them. Evaluation of libraries and information services A further problem concerns the difficulty of estimating the value of libraries and information services.

There are no recognized units by which

their total output can be measured, and there is no objective method of evaluating their performance.

Hence it is difficult to know whether

available resources are being used to their best advantage, yet when resources are scarce their allocation is a critical matter.

It is however

possible to measure availability and points at which failure occurs: in acquisition, in cataloguing, in shelf arrangement, and so on.*

*

See, for example, Kantor, P.B. Availability analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 27 (5/6), Sept.-Oct. 1976, 3 1 1 - 3 1 6 , and Lancaster, F.W. The measurement and evaluation of library services. Washington, DC: Information Resources Press, 1977. An example of failure in a public library is given at the beginning of Chapter 5 of the present book.

It was proposed in the Working Document of UNISIST 1 1 ^ t h a t

surveys and

case studies be undertaken to produce firm evidence of the ways in which information has been used to minimize duplication of effort, bring financial rewards from timely information and open up new lines of work and other innovations, as well as to identify ways in which information systems and services have successfully supported and enhanced endogenous development. Although objective evaluation is very difficult, the direction and structure of information services may be at least partly determined by user assessment.

For example, the nature and type of records of library holdings

should certainly be decided in the light of users' behaviour and preferences, as should the relative resources allocated to records and direct user service.

Attitude surveys can also reveal a good deal about users'

understanding and appreciation of library services, and suggest areas for improvement.

Even very simple measures such as the amount of use can

indicate whether libraries are appealing to their clients. The need for user orientation Narrow professionalism may have harmed the public image of the librarian and hence affected the use of libraries.

Conversely, greater orientation of

information services towards users could do much to improve their planning, individually and nationally, to increase their use, and to gain the support of users.

This may involve the packaging or repackaging of published works

for particular users or group of users. National planning of information services While each library and information service must do what it can for its users, the national planning of information services should be undertaken as a whole.

In many countries different libraries and information centres are

financed from different sources or in different ways, so that libraries tend to behave as separate entities although most are financed directly or indirectly from the public purse.

This can be wasteful, and is unlikely ever

Intergovernmental Conference on Scientific and Technological Information for Development (UNISIST II) Paris, 28 May - 1 June 1979. Document. Paris: Unesco, 1979 (PGI/UNISIST II/1»).

Main Working

U6 to result in an optimal total system of information provision.

Greater

coordination, even if some autonomy is lost in the process, is desirable if users are to be adequately served. Finally, since information services are an essential service to the population - as essential as communication and transport systems - their national development should be integrated with national planning generally, the more especially as other parts of a national plan will require information of various kinds for their implementation.

47

H:

THE PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY OF PUBLICATIONS

Introduction^^ ^ Publications, as already stated, constitute one of the most significant means of recording and transmitting information, and certainly the most permanent. The publisher is responsible for the quantity and quality of works that are published; he also markets and disseminates the published works.

Booksellers

and other distribution agents supply the public direct and also serve libraries.

Some material may be obtained direct from publishers, but the

majority of acquisitions involve the participation of both.

Thus their roles

are of fundamental importance for the availability of publications.

Both

libraries and other information services, though they may obtain some material by gift and exchange, and individuals are dependent on the products and services of publishers, booksellers and other distribution agencies. Libraries and other information services constitute an important, often the main, market for many published works, and they are the principal means for ensuring continuing availability of out of print material.

The quantity

and quality of published material, the efficiency of the trade in making it available, and the price at which it can be obtained largely determine the acquisition policies of libraries and their ability to satisfy users.

A major source of information for this chapter is: Commercial book supply: the availability of book materials through commercial channels, with particular reference to developing countries. 1: Literature review, by J. Clews and others; 2: Questionnaire survey of libraries, publishers and booksellers, by P. Oakeshott (to be published by the IFLA International Office for UAP).

48 In no country can the indigenous publishing industry meet all the needs of all sections of the population - nor should it try to; in very few countries can it even meet most of the needs of the majority.

These basic facts

underline the interdependence and internationality of the various elements of the book world, and the need for each to flourish to promote the widest possible availability of knowledge and information.

"A sound publishing

industry is essential to national development"^^. UAP is concerned with the availability of material once it has been published.

This chapter therefore concentrates primarily on distribution.

However, some aspects of authorship, publishing and associated activities can have a major impact on availability.

Distribution patterns, methods and

problems are inextricably bound up with the nature and level of publishing in individual countries and with publishing activity throughout the world. Six countries account for more than 50$ of world book title production, (2) and 16 countries for 75Í production.

; there is a similar concentration of journal

Not only that, but the concentration seems actually to have

increased rather than diminished in the last decade or two.

Thus the area of

greatest concern relates to those countries with a poorly developed publishing industry and a high reliance on imports. case in developing countries.

This is particularly the

Although generalizations are dangerous, a

number of factors common to developing, and some developed, countries can be identified, though their relative importance will vary. Authorship The health of the publishing industry, and less directly of the book trade, depends to a considerable extent on authorship.

Authorship, particularly in

developing countries, is often a part-time activity.

Developing countries

tend to have little tradition of writing and levels of literacy are low. Authors in these countries have tended to write in the languages of former colonial powers and to prefer to be published by major publishers in the

Charter of the Book: Article IV Unesco Statistical Yearbook 1980.

Paris: Unesco, 1980.

«9 developed countries, because they offer more opportunities for publishing and their publications make a larger impact.

Indigenous publishers are therefore

deprived of potential material, including much of the best material.

Authors

from developing countries suffer from a high rejection rate from publishers in developed countries, particularly in the field of scientific journals, because they have less experience in writing for audiences in developed countries, research facilites are generally poorer, less support is available in the form of good libraries from which they can obtain relevant literature. Material from developing countries that is published in developed countries is often purchased back by many of the developing countries, and such imports further inhibit the development of a significant base for local publishing. A similar though less marked trend can be detected in some industrialized countries and centrally planned economies. Authors may be assisted by authors' associations, by manuals and guides, by seminars and workshops, by the award of prizes and honours, by tax incentives and by other means of financial support, whether from governments or from international organizations concerned with the development of local publishing in the vernacular.

To quote again from the Charter of the Book:

"Society has a special obligation to establish the conditions in which authors can exercise their creative role". Printing In order to produce works for publication, paper, inks, and printing and binding equipment must be available.

Again developing countries are at a

disadvantage as they need to import equipment and supplies, but shortages of funds and currency restrictions often make import difficult or impossible. Moreover, while inks and machinery may be imported (care must be taken to avoid obsolescent machinery), this is not always so in the case of paper, because of the world shortage of raw materials for paper.

While many

developing countries possess their own raw materials, they cannot always use them because of the high costs of papermaking machinery.

Some research has

been done in non-traditional materials for papermaking, but more is needed. International action may be needed to ensure that developing countries receive a fair share of limited resources.

Governments should ensure that

supplies and equipment for book manufacture are included in their economic planning.

50 In the case of printing and binding, processes that use a great deal of labour can often be more economical than capital-intensive methods. production techniques need to be encouraged.

New

The use of camera-ready copy

and reproduction on demand is well established in industrialized countries, especially for non-conventional publications that are not commercially published or distributed.

Their use in developing countries should be

explored not only for such categories of material, but also for scholarly publications and for commercial material when markets are small.

At the same

time, there is a danger that the rapid development of computerized methods of printing and publishing in developed countries will further widen the gulf between them and developing countries, which lack the sophisticated infrastructure and machinery necessary for their utilization. There is no easy solution to the problems of physical book production in developing countries.

Besides maximizing the use of national resources, both

materials and manpower, contributions can be made by such measures as the removal or reduction of customs and excise duties on imported machinery and materials and the shared use of expensive illustrative material to reduce printing costs. Publishing While various elements combine in the production and dissemination of publications, it is the publisher who organizes the whole undertaking, bringing the various elements together, providing editorial control and marketing and distribution expertise.

His role is therefore crucial.

Publishing always involves certain risks, but in developing countries several factors increase these risks.

Even in developed countries where indigenous

sales are high many publishers need additional markets in other countries to recover their coste.

In many developing countries low literacy, poverty and

the lack of purchasing power and habits limit the size of the local market. The problem of market size is compounded in some developing countries by a multiplicity of languages.

Even the publications of developing countries

that are produced in more widely used languages rarely benefit from substantial exports to compensate for the small size of the local market. Even when developing countries in a region share a common language, as in much of Latin America, publishing is still fragmented. leads to small editions which deny economies of sale.

Limited readership

51 The absence of a flourishing indigenous publishing industry in developing countries leads to an extensive reliance on imports, which find a ready though limited market. minority languages.

This applies also to smaller developed countries with

This is particularly true of textbooks, often regarded

as a relatively sound basis for the further development of publishing, and of children's books.

A large proportion of these are imported in many

developing countries, or are reproduced in the original or in translation by subsidiaries of foreign companies.

Thus they may not be closely linked to

the special features and needs of the country, and profits may therefore not be put into the development of a healthy indigenous publishing industry. Nevertheless textbooks, often funded in the public sector, tend to dominate publishing in developing countries. Unless publications respond to the basic needs and interests of a country's population, they cannot be effective agents of national development.

The need is not only to create original works but also to bring

to the country the knowledge and experience of the world.

Translations offer

a partial solution, but developing countries often lack translators and the foreign currency required to obtain translation rights, and while textbooks in science may be internationally acceptable this is not the case with most other subjects.

Adaptations are often more suitable, and they would also

help to train local authors.

However, translations and adaptations can never

replace authentic and original creation.

There is much need for original

material in national languages, produced by local authors to meet local needs.

This is especially important for the development of literacy and the

support of education. Planning for the development of national publishing capacity requires national initiative and may need international cooperation to help create the necessary infrastructure.

It entails integration with education and with

economic and social planning and the participation of professional organizations.

The possibility of financial incentives should be fully

explored, such as tax relief on exports and long-term, low-interest financing on a national, bilateral or multilateral basis. The production of non-book media raises different and even more difficult issues, which receive some discussion in Chapter 8.

52 Copyright Copyright has the effect of giving creative works the quality of property that can be bought or hired.

It protects original works of intellectual

creation and enables the creator to control and receive remuneration for the uses made of his work, while enabling society to have access to his work. Legislation has attempted to seek a balance between the needs of society for knowledge and the rights of the individual creator and publisher.

Once a

work has been published the exclusive rights of the copyright owner are subject to some limits.

The laws of many countries allow "fair use", notably

the making of single copies of small extracts from books or of articles from journals for the purposes of research or private study. In order to encourage an author to create and publish, society ensures that through legislation the author has sufficient rights to enable him to give part of those rights to a publisher who will then feel justified in spending time and money to make the work available to the public.

The

author's right is thus essential if publication is to be secured. International conventions extend protection across national boundaries, though domestic sovereignty results in the application of national legislation in regard to both national and foreign authors.

The 1971

revisions of the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention have sought to help publishers in developing countries to acquire reproduction and translation rights from copyright owners in developed countries. Unlicensed and uncontrolled copying, notably of multiple copies of complete publications, may seriously damage the position of the author and the original publisher who has invested in editing, production, marketing and distribution.

These costs do not have to be met by the copier who can thus

sell the product more cheaply, thereby eroding the sales of the original publisher.

Piracy may also hamper the development of the publishing industry

in the countries where it occurs. Distribution In many countries, especially developing countries, distribution is the weakest link in the chain between author and reader.

The retail bookseller

is still the mainstay of the book trade, particularly in industrialized

53 countries, though books may be sold through other outlets such as stationers, newsagents, supermarkets and so on.

Most bookshops are based in towns

because they need a large volume of trade to survive.

In developing

countries, however, most of the population lives in rural areas.

Mass

distribution does exist in some developing countries where models based on practice in industrialized countries have been successful in towns.

The only

schemes to penetrate rural areas have combined mass production with postal book clubs or village library schemes.

The most effective distribution

systems have either used existing newspaper distributors, or been set up by publishers themselves or by missionary organizations.

Many rural areas can

be served only by mobile bookshops or one-man shops, though books may also be sold through mixed-goods outlets. constructive role.

Book markets and fairs can also play a

While booksellers should ideally stock a wide range of

titles, in developing countries, especially in rural areas, they can often afford to stock only very popular works - novels, religious works, and so on - and textbooks.

There may be long delays between the placing of an order

for books and the receipt of cash for sales; payment facilities that take account of these difficulties are needed to allow the bookseller to provide a satisfactory service. In many countries retail price maintenance allows publishers to fix retail prices.

Discounts to booksellers may account for a high proportion of the

retail price, as may the discounts offered to schools and libraries.

It has

already been noted that developing countries need to rely extensively on imports.

Publishers sometimes recommend or determine prices of imported

books within traditional market areas, but more commonly booksellers must add a mark-up to the original retail price when importing books in order to cover additional costs.

Sometimes this mark-up is so high that it defeats its own

purpose by deterring purchasers. The cost of production and distribution can be greatly reduced by the use of microforms as a publishing medium.

At present (and for the likely

foreseeable future) it is largely restricted to report literature and some journals (especially back runs).

However, the use of microforms requires

reading machines, which in turn require a guaranteed supply of electricity and adequate maintenance, and also ideally printing facilities.

Unless these

are available - and they cost money - the benefits of lower purchase costs

51 may be largely nullified.

Battery-operated microform readers will become

more common and cheaper and so help to solve this problem, but far less progress has been made with producing economic and satisfactory reader-printers. For journals, distribution is usually direct from the publisher or through a journal agent, rather than through the retail book trade, though in many countries the retail trade also handles some journals.

Journal publishing in

developing countries tends to be infrequent and irregular and, as with books, there is a significant reliance on imports.

These may be supplied at a

higher subscription rate; more often cheaper, and hence usually slower, methods of distribution may be used while maintaining a uniform subscription rate.

Additional problems arise for developing countries if journals are

sent by slower methods and if, as evidently happens in a number of cases, issues are lost in transit.

Loss usually becomes apparent only when the next

issue is received, by which time replacements may be unobtainable as relatively few copies are printed in excess of known demand.

Often it cannot

be ascertained whether the issue was actually despatched or not, and if extra payment is required a further strain is put on the library's budget. In many countries bibliographic control by libraries and by the book trade is inadequate.

Not all countries produce national bibliographies.

In many

countries where they do exist, coverage is seriously incomplete and they may appear two or three years after the works they record have published. International Standard Book Numbers are not universally adopted, nor are trade journals giving bibliographic listings of books published in all countries.

National directories of publishers are likewise often lacking.

This lack of information constitutes a fundamental barrier to the identification and hence to the acquisition of much potentially useful material. Import problems Problems associated with the need to import material include customs and excise duties, foreign currency restrictions, and the need to rely on

55 international communication facilities.

The Florence agreement^ grants

duty-free entry to publications and calls on governments to grant as far as possible licences and foreign exchange for publications.

It also provides

that internal taxes should be kept at the same level as for domestic products and that import procedures should be simplified.

It has subsequently been

recommended that governments should as far as possible exempt publications from taxes and other internal charges and from restrictions on quantities imported.

Care must obviously be exercised to ensure that the material

imported is really needed; "dumping" by publishers in developed countries of unsold stock is not unknown. have also been suggested.

Customs clearance facilities for publications

Audio-visual materials and microforms are

particularly subject to customs delays. However, the major problems of purchase from abroad facing developing countries are shortages of purchase funds and trained staff, and distance from the major publishing countries. air but much slower.

Carriage by sea is much cheaper than by

This may be especially critical for journals,

particularly scientific journals containing up to date material of immediate relevance.

Special postal rates may be of benefit as a large and increasing

share of the market is conducted through the mail; savings can be passed on to the consumer, and lower prices may stimulate further sales.

It is

therefore particularly disappointing that in some countries special postal rates are no longer in operation. The intervention of the Universal Postal Union can be of major help, although the unreliability of postal services in many developing countries means that publishers and distributors often prefer alternative methods. Reductions have also been advocated for freight rates, and concessionary rates are available for certain types of publication.

Incentive rates for

air shipment would serve the interest of readers, and would also be of

^1^ Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials, adopted by Unesco's General Conference at Florence in 1950.

56 benefit to the airlines by generating increased traffic.

With care, a

variety of methods may be used to achieve faster distribution without greatly increased costs. Automation of distribution The use of automation in distribution is still in its early stages.

The

areas of greatest impact are likely to be stock control, order processing, and accounting and management, and the main developments in the immediate future will be in the developed countries.

The problems facing developing

countries call for different solutions to improve service to readers. Initially these may be centred on creating awareness of public needs and of the resources available to satisfy them, and on making sustained efforts to bring publications to the public. Acquisition by Libraries and Other Information Providers Without doubt, one of the most satisfactory means of resolving the problems of bringing publications to all potential readers is the library, whether this is a separate unit or a collection that forms part of a broader information service.

Libraries must not only exist - and their existence can

by no means be taken for granted - but be able to identify and obtain the publications their readers need.

Lack of information, both bibliographic and

promotional, is a significant barrier to acquisition in many countries, even of indigenous publications.

Significant improvement, both by publishers and

by libraries, is needed if potentially useful publications and the sources of supply are to be identified. In industrialized countries most library books and journals are acquired by purchase.

Some booksellers and publishers offer approval plans and

blanket order schemes to libraries, thus simplifying and hastening selection and acquisition.

Such schemes rarely exist in developing countries.

Delays

occur when material is imported from abroad, and extra charges may be made to cover the additional costs involved.

Libraries in industrialized countries

do not use international exchange extensively for foreign acquisitions. Exchange is used more heavily, particularly for foreign material, by libraries in centrally planned economies, often using surplus legal deposit copies for the purpose.

57 In developing countries readers depend especially heavily on libraries to meet their needs.

However, the acquisition of library materials is beset

with the difficulties already indicated.

The poor organization of the book

trade in many developing countries makes the acquisition of indigenous material difficult, and imports cause even greater problems.

Purchase is

subject to delays, high costs, import restrictions, and the unavailability of foreign currency, and the loss of material in transit is not uncommon. International exchange is sometimes used to avoid purchase costs and save foreign currency, but libraries often find it difficult to achieve parity with exchange partners, and exchange incurs high postal charges and extra staff costs. Legal deposit legislation exists in most developing countries, it is often of recent origin and may not cover all forms of publication. non-compliance may be non-existent, weak or unenforced.

Sanctions for

As a result, many

national imprints may not be deposited. Gifts may be useful if receiving libraries can choose what they accept and donors do not attach special conditions; unnegotiated gifts usually bring more costs than benefits.

Cooperative acquisition schemes involving several

libraries (treated more fully in the next chapter) have not usually been very successful because of conflicts between cooperative and institutional needs; they can extend availability when money is plentiful but rarely maintain it when finances are reduced. Although libraries form, with educational institutions, the largest market for many types of publication and for many publishers, publishers often do not effectively direct publicity to libraries.

Publishers in developed

countries can rely on disposing of as much as 80Í of a print run of a good children's book and some scientific and technical publications to libraries. The development of libraries, especially public and school libraries in developing countries, is a major stimulus to the growth of publishing, partly as a market in themselves, and partly by promoting and assisting literacy and readership and thus extending the market for publications.

58 Coordination in Production and Supply The many agents involved in the creation, manufacture and dissemination of publications are often poorly coordinated and unable individually to identify and implement solutions to problems.

If more books and journals are to be

produced, if the quality of content and production is to be improved, and if products are to be available at reasonable prices, the need to cooperate in resolving these problems is apparent.

Careful planning should be coupled

with national efforts to take into account the diverse requirements of authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians and readers.

In a number of

countries National Book Development Councils have been established as the most suitable means of ensuring such planning and cooperation.

Conditions in

individual countries vary, but a number of common objectives may be identified : -

to lay down a framework for book development, classified as a priority industry, in the context of the overall requirements of the country, and to bring about its full integration in economic, social and cultural development planning; to secure the active cooperation of all ministries, agencies, professional associations and educational and intellectual institutions concerned with the authorship, production, marketing and utilization of publications;

-

to devise and implement a programme of concerted action; to foster and coordinate research into the problems of book development, in particular how wide distribution of publications can best be achieved; to encourage the formation of professional associations where these do not exist and their strengthening where they do;

-

to create and stimulate public consciousness of books and journals and encourage discriminating reading habits; to encourage and promote the provision of adequate library services;

-

to organize and provide training facilities in all matters relating to reading materials;

-

to encourage the maintenance of high professional standards both in conduct and in technical processes. In countries where such bodies have existed for some time, it would be

useful to investigate them to identify areas where they have been more effective or less and the features that lead to effectiveness.

59

5:

THE ACQUISITION OF PUBLICATIONS

The Need for Action^1^ That acquisition is an essential element in UAP is self-evident; publications can be made available only if they have been acquired. The limitations of local collections: growing demand, growing output, growing cost and shrinking budgets People want most of their information needs to be met quickly, and this can be achieved only by good local libraries and information services: availability must begin at the local level.

It might be supposed that local

collections are capable of meeting most needs.

However, it should first be

stated that local availability requires more than acquisition: several studies have shown that items wanted by users are not found by them in the catalogue, and of those * that are so traced a significant proportion cannot be located on the shelves . This occurs even in libraries that impose no

(1)

*

The main source of information for this chapter is: Collins, J. and Finer, R. National acquisition policies and systems: a comparative study of existing systems and possible models. Wetherby: IFLA International Office for UAP, 1982.

For example, in a public library in the USA 18% of items wanted had not been acquired; 8$ of items in the catalogue were not found; 45f of items found in the catalogue were not at the shelves; and 9Ï of those that were on the shelves were not located. Thus 62% of wanted items were not available to users. (Wood, Judith B. and others. Measurements of service at a public library. Public Library Quarterly; 2 (2), Summer 1980, 49-57.)

60 artificial barriers between themselves and their users, and such libraries are by no means universal. In the ideal library, with an easily usable catalogue and nearly all books in their place on the shelves (an impossible ideal because the most wanted books are liable to be on loan or otherwise in use), it might be further supposed that the material that the library has not acquired and that has to be borrowed from elsewhere is of peripheral interest.

Even in developed

countries this is true only for the general reader, not for the specialist or researcher; in some developed countries a university library may borrow up to 20,000 items a year from elsewhere.

The very large increase in interlending

in most countries since World War 2 indicates the growing inability of local institutions, even large and well-funded ones, to meet needs that are growing in volume and complexity. The ability of institutions to acquire material to meet local needs is inevitably limited by the financial resources available.

No individual

institution can buy more than a fraction of world output - for example, book production alone in 1978 was estimated at 612,000 titles^ 1 ^ - and this fraction may often be only a small proportion of what local users require. Every local library has to select, and the smaller the budget the more difficult the task of selection.

A good deal of research has been directed

in recent years to optimizing the use of the funds available.

Some

publications virtually select themselves, while others (often the great majority) are clearly irrelevant to the clientele of the particular institution in question.

This still leaves a very large number of

publications from among which selection can be very difficult; however much care is taken in selection, and however generous the funds available, perfect selection is impossible and many needs will be unfulfilled locally. The situation is likely to deteriorate further.

Although subsidies in

some countries have enabled prices to be kept down, the cost of publications in many countries continues to rise as a result of higher costs of material, labour and distribution.

The cost of journals published in the USA more than

Unesco Statistical Yearbook 1980.

Paris: Unesco, 1980.

61 trebled between 1970 and 1 9 8 ( / Ί ) , while in the UK a sample of British journals likely to be acquired by specialized and learned libraries increased in cost by a factor of more than six between 1970 and 1982, an increase of 1 5 . 7 % on 1981 and

1981

(3)

Book prices in the UK increased by over 30% between 1980

.

These increases are occurring at a time when the funding of library and information services in many countries is decreasing in real terms. Reductions in the budgets of UK university libraries of 25% between 1979 and 1981 are not u n c o m m o n ^

and in the three years up to 1980 spending by these (5)

universities on books went down by some 33% countries is even more critical.

·

The

situation in developing

Many institutions have funds that are

insufficient for the most rudimentary local provision. Extending resources Since even the best funded collections oannot meet all needs, systematic measures need to be taken to enrich the pool of resources available so that material not locally available can be supplied to users as and when it is needed.

Without such measures many needs will remain unsatisfied, and lack

of confidence in services will place further constraints upon demands, as people are unlikely to request material they do not think can be provided.

The implications of this are serious.

As was noted in Chapter 2,

the availability, and henoe the acquisition, of publications and the information they contain is vital for the support of literacy,

self-education

and continuing education as well as the more precisely identifiable needs of formal education, research and development. In many countries cooperative arrangements exist for the acquisition of material for the mutual benefit of libraries, documentation centres and similar institutions, whether those in a particular area, or those related by

(ZÍ ^ ^

Outlook Library Library Outlook Outlook

on Research Libraries, 2 (8), 1980, 5-6. Association Record, 84, (5), 1982, 232-233. Assocatlon Record, 83, (7), 1981, 331. on Research Libraries, 3, (7), 1981, 5. on Research Libraries, 2, (6), 1980, 8-9.

62 type or subject.

These arrangements are often informal and rarely have any

element of obligation.

In the absence of more formal agreements such

arrangements can make a valuable contribution, but they are at best only a partial solution. The systematic provision of additional material greatly assists libraries in optimizing local provision.

It can enable individual institutions to

concentrate on meeting local needs while helping to guarantee the availability of additional material as and when the need arises. Systematic provision can also help individual countries to meet their international responsibilities.

The only comprehensive basis for obtaining

publications from other countries is from the country of origin, even if only as a last resort.

Thus individual countries must aim to acquire

systematically for subsequent availability all their national imprints. Acquisition for positive availability The distinction between reference and lending responsibilities is of fundamental importance.

An acquisitions policy or syetem that is intended

solely to provide reference services is not by itself sufficient to achieve the goal of Universal Availability of Publications.

Unless the publications

acquired are loanable, users have to travel to the collection to consult the many items that cannot be supplied as copies.

For many potential users this

is inconvenient and for some it is impossible.

This aspect is treated more

fully in Chapter 7, but the link between acquisition systems and interlending systems may be stressed here.

Local provision can be optimized only if an

effective system exists to obtain material held in other collections.

The

development or improvement of an interlending system should be as high a priority as the upgrading of collections.

The nature of the interlending

system should help to determine the nature of acquisition policies, both national and local, and an analysis of demands should help to determine the detailed programmes. An emphasis on availability does not of course mean that major research libraries, including those that do not lend, or lend only under stringent conditions, have no role to play in UAP.

On the contrary, they have a unique

role, particularly in what might be termed retrospective availability, since

63 they hold the only copies of many publications of the past, and without their custody and care of such publications there would be no chance of their being consulted, let alone supplied to remote users as photocopies or microfilms. Their role in conservation is considered more fully in Chapter 6. National Acquisition Policies and Systems To facilitate the acquisition of material on a systematic basis, both to meet the needs of individual countries and to fulfil international obligations, national acquisition policies and systems are desirable. A national acquisition policy creates the programme through which the published material is gathered by a nation's libraries, archives and documentation centres and controlled in order to be made available.

It

prescribes formally the organized collection of resources intended for the nation's use and beyond.

The policy may work by inclusion, indicating the

categories of material to be acquired, or by exclusion, indicating categories that will not be acquired.

Most countries do not at present have a national

acquisition policy, and it is certain that no country can make available all the publications published within its borders. A national acquisition system is a planned and explicit set of procedures and practices that covers either the actual mechanics of fulfilling the acquisition policy, or the procedures for acquiring material in the absence of a policy. importance.

Where there is no policy the system becomes of paramount It should be added that while a national acquisition system will

normally be planned and explicit, some countries may have an implicit, de facto system, though this is very unlikely except in cases where there is a central collection with generous funding and comprehensive coverage. The coverage of a national acquisitions policy If it is accepted that a national acquisition policy and system are necessary in individual countries to ensure the systematic provision of material, then the extent of coverage of that policy must be determined.

Total

self-sufficiency, which can be ensured only by the acquisition of all the world's output, is obviously impossible in any country. therefore be set.

Some limits must

64 Coverage may be determined by subject, form of material, 'level1 (academic, popular, etc), language, country of origin, date or perceived likely usefulness - or by a combination of these criteria.

Practical factors

such as finances are likely to be at least as important as theoretical ones. The choice of criteria will reflect existing provision and predicted needs. National and foreign publications must be considered separately.

No

country should expect to obtain its own national imprint3 from other countries, the only major exceptions being older publications forming an integral and inseparable part of the archives of former colonial powers. Thus the policy should aim to ensure the acquisition of all national imprints, to fulfil both national and international obligations.

The larger

the book production of the country, the higher proportion of national demands it can expect to fulful from its own publications. The provision of foreign publications should be related to needs.

The

need for foreign imprints depends on several factors, such as the extent and nature of domestic publishing, and languages; for example, small countries with languages that are used widely in larger countries will have a need for publications produced in these larger countries, while countries with several minority languages in which they publish little will be heavily dependent on books published elsewhere in more common languages.

Limiting factors will be

the availability of foreign exchange, and political factors such as censorship. If libraries have reasonably fast and cheap access by loan and photocopy to the resources of other countries for less frequently used foreign publications, there may appear to be little need for domestic acquisition of much foreign material.

However, speedy and comprehensive supply from abroad

can never be guaranteed, and in any case to borrow or otherwise obtain from other countries more than about 30% of publications that are not available in local collections not only implies heavy dependence, but may also be very uneconomic^1^.

(There is of course nothing magic about the figure of 30$; it

Line, Maurice B. and others. National interlending systems: a comparative study of existing systems and possible models. Paris: Unesco, 1980. (PG1/78/WS/24 (Rev.)).

65 is suggested merely as a reasonable general guideline based on experience). It is relatively straightforward to compare the cost of borrowing an item with the cost of acquiring it, but a rational choice involves some prediction of future needs, since most publications go out of print in two or three years; the use of journals can be predicted w i t h much greater confidence than the use of books.

Kxcessive dependence on other countries could also be

politically objectionable, and requires continued good relations with the countries

concerned.

A national acquisition policy should therefore aim to ensure the acquisition, for subsequent availability, of all national imprints, and sufficient foreign material to meet some 70% of needs. again to differentiate between needs and demands.

It is important once

Individuals may demand

information they do not need, and certainly need information they do not demand.

Demands are partly dependent on expectation, which in turn depends

partly on the existing provision of library and information services.

A need

is a potential demand. No general prescription can be given for the coverage of a national acquisition policy.

In each country, national values and the individual

circumstances of its political structure, economy and pattern of library and information provision are unique.

One would however expect current journals

to form the core of most programmes, especially in developed countries, with an emphasis on those subjects in which a country's industry and/or research specializes or in which its needs are greatest (eg tropical medicine in a hot country).

Small collections of carefully chosen journals can meet a very

significant proportion of demands.

Books, report literature, non-book

media, ephemeral material and retrospective gap filling may all be incorporated into a programme once it is well established. Requirements for Effective Systems A national acquisition policy is useless if it is a mere paper exercise: it must be practicable.

In many countries there are significant barriers to the

realization of an effective policy and system. There are several requirements for an effective national acquisition system, especially one relying to any extent on cooperation.

For all the

lip-service paid to cooperation, all too often a cooperative spirit may be

66 lacking; individual institutions may be jealous of their autonomy, and different groups may have different ideas about the organization of a national system.

A national policy that is based to any degree on

cooperation can be effective only if the institutions on which it is based are actively committed to it.

A general commitment amongst the library

community to the principle of UAP is needed, and in particular support for a national acquisition programme. required.

A central planning and steering body is

This does not necessarily call for a government department; if

there is a central library authority it would be reasonable for it to take on this role.

Where no national library administration exists, and in countries

where different ministries are responsible for different sectors of library and information services, special provision may need to be made for the planning and coordination of a national system. A national acquisition policy that rests on the participation of a number of independent institutions must be able to put at their disposal sufficient funds to allow them to undertake their additional responsibilities by acquiring publications that they would not otherwise acquire, and by the use of staff time to serve other institutions from their collections.

Since the

existence of a national system will and should also influence local provision - as noted above, one of the arguments for a national system is that it enables local provision to be optimized - there must be a reasonable guarantee of long-term funding of the national system. The development of library and information services is often a low priority politically, and this may be reflected in inadequate library budgets.

As governments, directly or indirectly, are responsible for funding

much of the library and information service of most countries, clear demonstration may be needed to show how the failure to make adequate provision of publications inhibits development.

Success therefore also

depends on securing government support for the principle of UAP. As a national policy requires the acquisition of foreign publications, their procurement must be relatively unrestricted.

In some countries there

may be no funds for foreign exchange, or there may be restrictions on imports that are intended to encourage national production but in fact serve as a barrier to education and research; these matters too require action by government.

67 A further practical pre-requisite for an effective system is the existence of good guides to resources.

As no system, whether it is based on one

institution or divided among several, can be comprehensive, information should be provided, if not on the actual holdings of the institutions involved, then on the criteria used for collection building and the allocation of categories of publications among libraries. Similarly, as already indicated, a good interlending system is an essential companion to an acquisition system.

A system based on the

distribution of material between institutions or on extensive acquisition by a central unit of first or last resort requires that material can be borrowed as and when wanted.

Interlending systems are discussed in Chapter 7.

A further relevant consideration is the retention of material to meet future needs.

If individual institutions are to concentrate effectively on

satisfying immediate local needs they must be confident that the material acquired by the national system will continue to be available.

Hence a

national acquisition policy must require the retention of material acquired and appropriate mechanisms must be included.

The various ways in which this

may be achieved are treated in Chapter 6. Finally, and obviously, the policy and systems must be monitored to ensure their effectiveness.

This is most simply achieved by monitoring failed

interlibrary loan requests, especially if the provision of additional material is the responsibility of a single central service.

In a cooperative

system unsatisfied requests should be notified to a central unit so that the overall picture can be monitored, areas of weakness identified and remedial action taken.

This assumes that the system is such as to encourage requests:

an unused system can be monitored only by analysing the reasons for non-use and the needs that are not expressed as demands. Mechanics of Collection Domestic imprints are commonly acquired for a national system by reliance on legal deposit regulations, but their effectiveness varies greatly, as noted in the previous chapter.

In many developing countries only a small minority

of national imprints are deposited.

Furthermore, material acquired by legal

deposit often has restrictions attached to it that inhibit its availability

68 for loan.

The extension, strengthening and strict policing of legal deposit

regulations to ensure systematic coverage for reference and loan purposes are urgent necessities in many countries. Foreign publications may be acquired by standard purchasing procedures. Aspects of the commercial supply of publications were treated in Chapter 4. Problems, especially in developing countries, include shortage of credit and foreign currency, high mark-ups applied by local agents to imported publications, slow shipment by surface mail, or expensive shipment by airmail, and the risk of loss in transit. International exchange avoids most of these problems but is not free of difficulties itself.

Its extent may be limited by the fact that in many

countries which may benefit most from exchange levels of book and journal production are low, with few publications produced in widely used languages, so that they have little to offer in return; also, 'hard currency' libraries may be unwilling to enter into agreements because the procedures involved may be costly in time and cumbersome in operation. Possible Types of Acquisition System For a system to have a chance of being effective, it must be designed to meet identified needs under given conditions.

This requires the collection of

data - the design of efficient systems can be based only on thorough knowledge of the material already available and the needs of users, together with a realistic assessment of the resources that can be made available to improve the situation.

There are various methods of organizing national

acquisition systems to meet the objectives of a national acquisition policy, some of which reflect existing practice. here.

A number of models are suggested

These are put forward in an attempt to indicate possible lines of

development, and to give substance to the considerations noted above.

The

appropriateness of these models to particular circumstances, and the relative weight and importance of their advantages and disadvantages, will vary from country to country. 1.

Centralized acquisition

Provision may be the responsibility of a central collection of second resort (that is, after the local library).

Such a collection may serve a single

69 country, or it may be designed for a group of neighbouring countries. would aim to meet a high proportion of demand (around

It

85%).

Such a system would need to be supported to a greater or lesser degree by other libraries.

Countries with a tradition of centralization can accept

more readily a system based on a single national resource.

Concentration on

one collection allows the objectives of the national policy to be worked out simply and its systems can be designed and monitored accordingly.

There

should be no conflict between priorities since there will be no reference use or local users, and no problem of defining coverage.

Libraries need apply to

only one source, which can and should be organized to offer fast access and supply. However, centralized provision is very costly; in many countries, even when the demand it would attract could justify it, financial resources may not be available for a new central unit and it may prove impossible to amalgamate existing collections.

The political, financial and organizational

difficulties associated with a central collection set up to serve several countries are greater still.

An example of centralized provision is the

British Library Lending Division. An alternative to comprehensive central provision, in countries with limited financial means and relatively low demand, is a collection limited to a core of heavily used journals; a collection of only 2,000 titles, with back runs of a few years, could satisfy half of all demand for journals.*

In this

case the system would be a mixed one, with centralization combined with one of the systems mentioned below. A further alternative is to have more than one central collection, each acquiring a particular form of publication such as report literature.

This

should be distinguished from concentration on a few libraries, described below.

*

A survey carried out at the British Library Lending Division in 1980 showed that 12,650 titles satisfied 90Í of demand for journals, 7,500 80Í, and 1,950 50*.

70 2.

Concentration on a few libraries

Provision oan be concentrated on perhaps four or five central subject libraries, whether these are established for the purpose or existing libraries designated as having national functions.

In many cases these could

between them cater for most of a country's research needs.

In developed

countries with established libraries the system can be based on existing centres of excellence.

University libraries would play an important role in

developing countries, which are more likely to adopt a gradual approach, while developed countries are more likely to attempt more comprehensive coverage at the outset.

Additional funding would be needed either to create

such collections or to allow existing libraries to be developed to fulfil their national responsibilities.

Coordination of subject responsibilities

and boundaries is very important.

Central subject libraries exist in several

countries; the Federal Republic of Germany and Bangladesh are two examples. Allocation of responsibilities need not be by subject.

It is possible to

have libraries specializing in particular forms of publication such as reports or in publications of different countries. 3.

Regional distribution of responsibilities

An alternative to division by broad subject category would be the distribution of acquisition responsibilities at a regional level, possibly with a central unit of last resort.

Such a solution requires large regional

libraries to act as a first back-stop to local provision and to coordinate acquisitions and interlibrary lending within the region.

Unsatisfied

requests can be channelled to other regions and finally to a central unit of last resort if one exists.

Such a solution would be very costly in total as

it would result in a high level of duplication.

Regionalization may be

virtually enforced as a result of federal structure or of a national ethos or policy of decentralization.

Otherwise it may be worth consideration in very

large countries, in countries with poor communication facilities, and possibly in countries in which library provision is plentiful and a strong tradition of regional cooperation already exists. Yugoslavia is one example of regionalization. A regional model could be adapted at a multi-national level for a grouping of countries with close links, if necessary with one central library serving as a last resort.

Each country would coordinate its acquisitions with the

71

other members of the group, for example by taking account of the particular interests and specialist collections of individual member countries. Multi-national schemes have the best chance of success when there is a tradition of formal cooperation in economic and governmental spheres, and when the countries are linked by linguistic, cultural and other ties.

It is

by no means clear that multi-national policies can be designed that are totally compatible with national practice and needs.

The best example of

multi-national regional cooperation is afforded by the Nordic countries, but even this has not been without its problems. 1.

Decentralized acquisition

A system could be based on decentralized allocation of responsibilities. This does not require the establishment of new collections, but builds on existing strengths, conferring national status on or giving national responsibilities to selected libraries.

The number of libraries involved may

vary greatly, from a few in a small developing country to many in a large developed area.

The division of responsibility may be by subject, country of

origin, language, date of publication, form of publication, etc.

The most

common division is by subject, but this is bound to encounter problems, such as the overlapping of fields whose boundaries are not clear cut and are in any case liable to change with the growth and changing structure of knowledge.

Nor does subject division necessarily best serve users, as it may

lead to the scattering of related materials. as to which libraries are to be involved. libraries, the more complex the programme. coordinating body is essential.

Decisions also have to be made

The greater the number of A strong central organizing and

Examples of the distribution of

responsibilities can be found in several countries, such as Denmark and the German Democratic Republic. The choice between models As stated above, the circumstances of each country are unique, and there can be no standard prescription applicable everywhere.

'Ideal' solutions may

prove to be impossible because of economic or other factors, but it is nevertheless important that planning, at least in the initial stages, should not be too constrained by past tradition or by conditions that may not be permanent or unalterable, and a model with good features should be not ruled out without careful consideration.

Improvisation and temporary expedients

are unlikely to yield such good results as gradual steps towards a well planned system.

72

6: KEEPING PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE The Need to Ensure Permanent Availability^^ ^ An essential element of ÜAP is the permanent availability of publications. The number of publications that remain available through commercial channels is inevitably very limited, in most countries to works published in the last three years, and in some to a still shorter period.

Second-hand purchase can

supplement current availability, but only to a small extent. One of the main, and indeed unique, roles of libraries is to make available publications of the past.

All libraries have a storage function,

but the importance attached to it by different kinds of library, and even by different libraries of the same kind, can vary considerably.

That an

institution may serve as a repository does not of course necessarily mean that it does not serve other functions; very few serve solely as repositories.

Some, especially national and major academic libraries, assume

a responsibility for retaining at least one copy of all works they have acquired.

This responsibility is however by no means universally accepted,

it may be confined to consultation and not extend to lending, and it may be diminished as it becomes harder to fulfil.

Others, particularly public and

industrial libraries, are much more concerned with the currency and usability of their stock than with the retention of older material, and items no longer in use are commonly withdrawn from stock.

(1)

The main source of information for this chapter is: Capital Planning Information. National repository plans and programmes: a comparative study of existing plans and possible models. Wetherby: IFLA International Office for UAP, 1982.

73 There is a serious danger that the last loanable copies (perhaps even the last copies, whether loanable or not) of many items previously acquired by libraries in a country will be lost to the country or even to the world.

It

is known that this has happened extensively in the past and that few countries, can claim to locate, let alone supply on loan or by photocopy, all of their own publications.

Without organized programmes for the retention of

publications availability may actually decline as books wear out, are discarded because they are no longer in local use, or have to be removed from stock because accommodation cannot keep pace with growing collections. The Concept of Repositories Care must be taken not to equate repository libraries only with legal deposit libraries.

The latter may have a responsibility to retain the material

published in their country and hence have a clear repository function, but they make a significant contribution to UAP only if this material can be made widely available.

In many countries restrictions are placed on the

availability of material acquired by legal deposit, especially when only one copy of each publication is deposited.

Further, there is a need for the

continuing availability of foreign publications, to which statutory archival responsibilities may not apply. The concept of a repository varies widely from one country to another, and in some developing countries is not a familiar concept at all because libraries have not yet reached a stage when pressure on space becomes critical.

Generally speaking, a repository function equates with storage.

The function of a repository is to preserve and keep available material that has been acquired by the libraries within the area served by the repository and that can no longer be accommodated in those libraries. Repositories tend, almost by definition, to be concerned with the permanent storage of older and lesser-used material.

There can be no general

rules as to what constitutes lesser-used material other than the use it actually receives.

It is not necessarily synonymous with 'old' material -

ageing does not necessarily mean obsolescence, and demand will vary according to content.

(Publications that acquire a rarity value on account of their

age are considered in Chapter 8).

Material seldom used in one library may be

in high demand in another, and material that is little used today may be in

74 demand tomorrow.

Demand and use are also partly determined by the degree of

'visibility' - bibliographical and physical.

Material held in a passive

repository in which the storage function is given priority will tend to receive much less use than that in a more dynamic library. It is of importance therefore whether repositories are 'active' or 'passive'; that is, whether their sole function may be that of receiving and storing material, or whether this is linked with an active acquisition policy, substantial loan activity and/or the exchange and distribution of surplus material. The concept of a national storage facility receiving surplus or unwanted material can be traced back to the early twentieth century.

However, with

few exceptions the concept remains merely a concept, a subject of discussion rather than a matter for action, and the arguments themselves have changed remarkably little.

While several countries are developing national library

plans, few make any significant reference to storage.

Nevertheless, there

are signs that in several countries the issue is being re-examined, as pressure on space increases and the economic recession decreases the likelihood that additional accommodation will be provided to relieve the pressure. National and academic libraries were mentioned above as often assuming a responsibility, or having one imposed upon them, for retaining publications they have acquired, and it was also stated that legal deposit libraries contribute to UAP only if the material deposited is made available.

However,

libraries that emphasize their collection and retention role can still have a very significant role to play in UAP.

Indeed, many of these libraries hold

the only copies of many publications of the past, not only of their own but of other countries, and it is only because they have retained and conserved them that they can be made available at all.

Even when loan is impossible,

as will often be the case, there are other ways in which availability can be achieved - by published facsimiles, by microfilms, by photographic copies, and possibly by other means in the future.

Also, the fact that many

libraries have given custody preference over availability in the past does not mean that they cannot play a more positive role in the future: : custody and availability are not incompatible.

75 The Organization and Functions of Repositories Geographical coverage Repositories may be local, regional or national.

The choice may be

determined by political and administrative considerations rather than needs. In a country with a federal constitution, for example, while a national repository might be an ideal solution, actual responsibility may be delegated to a state level. The choice may also be determined by the size of the country.

Local

storage - storage within a conurbation or very small area - may permit physical access by users of the parent institution(s) and should allow material to be retrieved for use in or through the depositing libraries within one working day.

Regional or national repositories at a distance from

those they are intended to serve need to be served by efficient communications.

It is doubtful if regional repositories can achieve a better

supply than national repositories unless they are Within easy travelling distance of local libraries, say 30 kilometres at most.

However, fears are

sometimes expressed that a single national repository might be vulnerable to a natural or man-made disaster, and for this and other reasons a single national repository, which may be hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from many of the institutions it is intended to serve may be unacceptable. The more remote the repository, the more time and effort - and therefore cost - institutions may feel they have to spend on deciding whether material, and what material, can safely be withdrawn from their collections without serious damage to their users* needs. Coverage by subject Repositories may be designed to cover material on a particular subject area or they may cover all subjects.

Over long periods of time knowledge cannot

conveniently be divided into subjects, the boundaries of which are impossible to fix permanently.

Division by subject may also lead both to duplication

and to gaps because some items fall between subjects, and since nearly all repositories are on closed access there seems to be little point in establishing systems to cater for separate subjects, except where collections strong in certain areas are further strengthened by relevant material withdrawn from other libraries.

However, where a national interlending or

76 national acquisition policy is a decentralized one, based on division by subject, a repository function might usefully be linked to these other functions on the same basis. Coverage by type of institution Repositories may be established to serve different types of institution. While a repository that caters for all types could integrate its total resources and hence achieve greater total effectiveness for less total cost, and while there need be no difference between providing space for different types of institution (say academic and public libraries) within a store, some librarians and administrators evidently see a combined facility as impractical because of the different types of material to be included.

There

may also be financial and administrative problems if different categories of institutions are responsible to different government departments or local authorities. Active and passive repositories As already noted, repositories may be active or passive.

It may be argued

that a relegation policy that identifies material of very low use is more successful than one that results in extensive use of relegated material. Repositories may contain relatively less used material, but that is no reason why they should confine their intake to almost totally unused material; and a collection containing the aggregate of the withdrawn stock of many local libraries may well receive a good deal of use.

Provision from a central

store can release considerable amounts of space in individual

institutions,

which can then give greater attention to more direct reader service functions.

In a number of countries repositories are, or are planned to be,

part of the interlending network. The distribution of duplicates A repository may also play an active role in the distribution of duplicates. This requires that ownership of material transferred to the repository is relinquished to allow for the integration of stocks held and the separation of duplicate copies that can be offered to other libraries.

Some of these

can be of real value to institutions within the counrty, especially ones that are recently established, impecunious, or weak in publications of a

77 particular period.

The remainder may be useful to institutions in other

countries, especially developing countries.

The organized distribution of

duplicates, which can be a cheap and effective way of filling gaps in established collections and building up new collections, is very difficult to achieve without some national repository plan.

It seems doubtful whether

duplicate disposal plans are well developed or managed within or between many countries. Acquisition and retention A link between repositories and acquisition policies may be of benefit to institutions whose budgets enable them to buy little used material, such as the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago.

Where this is acquired it can

be transferred direct to a repository, avoiding detailed cataloguing procedures and thus saving substantial amounts of staff time. Conservation The retention of material for future use needs to be associated with a conservation policy.

Nearly all the paper of books produced after the early

19th century is subject to decay, in some cases fairly rapid, quite apart from the normal wear and tear received by books.

Systematic retention

policies should allow the costs of conservation, whether this involves the preservation of paper copy, conversion to microfilm of archival quality, or other means such as digitization, to be optimized.

It should be noted that

all physical forms of material have to be conserved.

Microfilm, even if the

type and quality of the film used are suitable, can deteriorate in unfavourable conditions.

Non-book media have special conservation problems,

considered in Chapter 8. It is easier to carry out a conservation programme if only a few libraries are involved, both because the organization required is much simpler and because the most effective and economic use can be made of specialized conservation equipment and staff.

National and other major

research libraries have, as already noted, a special role to play in ensuring preservation.

Collections in private hands In many countries substantial collections of publications remain in private hands.

Some of these collections are of importance and value, and they may

well contain items that are uniquely held in the country if not unique in the

78

world.

It is all too easy for such collections to be lost to the country.

Ways of preventing this from happening include a statutory need for an export licence, and the creation of a national heritage fund which can be used to buy collections or items for public institutions. Finance and management In the case of repositories that are simply appendages of one institution, or that are separate but nationally financed, management is generally simple. Cooperative repositories may be financed and managed in a variety of ways. Each participating institution may rent space, or pay a contribution in proportion to its budget or in proportion to its use. Management may be the responsibility of a board of representatives of participating institutions.

Voting powers may vary from one vote per

representative to proportional votes based on contributions or usage. Systems are usually more complex when the number of participating institutions is neither very small nor very large; when the number becomes large simple arrangements are needed if the system is to be manageable.

In

any case, care must be taken that the problems and costs of organization do not cancel out the benefits. Requirements for Effective Systems Several key factors influence the successful establishment of a repository programme within individual countries. Ownership of material The first concerns the ownership of material.

Not all libraries are able to

relinquish ownership, and not all that are able are willing to do so.

To

consider willingness first, institutions, particularly in the academic and research library sector, may feel they are abdicating responsibility by passing control to a third party, especially in countries where repositories are of recent origin.

Fears persist that they may not be well equipped to

handle such material and that it may be lost if it is lent to other institutions, and there may be no guarantee that material will be returned to depositing institutions if errors are made.

79 Another consideration is the possible reduction of institutional prestige, which is often associated with the size of the collection.

Large scale

transfers could result in local collections that grew more slowly, remained more or less the same size, or even shrank.

The acceptance of performance

and output measures based on user satisfaction rather than size of stock may help to overcome these attitudes, but this is inevitably a slow process. As for ability to relinquish ownership, material is usually purchased under fairly strict budgetary and other policies.

Government regulations and

the need to account for materials held may preclude disposal, even to another agency of the same government.

To overcome this problem legislation or a

major modification of regulations may be necessary, and this may be hard to achieve even if the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of repositories can be demonstrated - something that is very difficult to do in advance. Management capability A second factor, alluded to above, is management capability.

This is

essential if repositories are to gain support from those they are intended to serve.

Donating institutions must be convinced that the repository is

competent to conserve materials, that it can handle large amounts of widely disparate material, and above all that it can retrieve and rapidly deliver material subsequently required. Relegation issues A third key factor is the issue of what and how to relegate.

One of the main

barriers to the withdrawal of items from collections is the difficulty and cost of selection for withdrawal and of the actual procedures of withdrawal. Several criteria have been advocated or used in practice.

Date of

publication or accession is a crude indicator, even if different dates are applied to different subjects.

Date of last circulation or the number of

uses in the last 'n' years is much more satisfactory as an indicator, but such data are difficult and expensive to obtain unless machine-readable records are available.

Item-by-item selection by library staff or expert

users is even more costly and, though psychologically more acceptable, probably less reliable.

Alternatively whole sections of stock in less-used

subjects can be withdrawn, or material could be withdrawn on a random basis outside 'core' items, as use outside this core is likely to be largely random.

80 The ease or difficulty of decisions on relegation is also crucial to the success of a repository system.

If guidelines can be established for

implementation by low-level staff with a minimum of disruption to the normal workings of an institution then it is more likely that it will participate. If decision-making is protracted, liable to interference and time-consuming, then other approaches will be sought and cooperation with any established programme will be less than total. User needs Demands from users to retain direct access can create pressures that are difficult to ignore; the feeling and the fear of loss may still be very powerful barriers.

Users may be reluctant to accept that material can be

housed at a distance without serious damage to research.

Although in most

libraries a small proportion of stock accounts for a very high proportion of use, the removal of large amounts of stock inevitably affects browsing and serendipity.

While the value of browsing may have been overstated - a

smaller stock may actually be more browsable than a very large one - it is nevertheless true that the withdrawal of less-used material makes effective bibliographic access much more necessary.

Much less-used material is older

and subject access to it may be very poor.

The problem is especially acute

in the humanities.

As yet little positive effort has been put into improving

retrospective bibliographic access. Possible Models of Repository Systems The main aim of repositories is to save money, by reducing unnecessary duplication, by extending the range of material available in the country, by using accommodation on cheaper land than that occupied by parent institutions, or by using cheaper storage methods. the only benefit or criterion.

However, economy is not

Individual institutions can not only gain in

space, they can be better organized for the benefit of users and staff; they can also make better use of purchasing funds if the repository is linked with an acquisition policy; and their catalogues may be less bulky and simpler to use.

All these possibilities are open to individual institutions working in

cooperation with one another and without any central repository, but the practical difficulties and costs of achieving and maintaining a programme of dispersed cooperative acquisition and retention are substantial, and the

81 problems of identifying unique copies and ensuring their permanent retention are especially severe.

At the other end of the scale the state may act to

establish a national policy.

A diversity of solutions is possible, and

likely, to a set of problems which are seen in different ways.

However, a

number of basic models may be identified. 1.

Single national repository with mandatory deposit

A separately administered, national, centralized repository may be established to which all literature meeting particular criteria would be sent - e.g. older than a stated term of years, unused for a stated period, etc. Compliance with this requirement would be monitored.

The acquisition

policies of individual institutions would be planned to accommodate subsequent transfers of stock and, where necessary, ordinances or local laws would provide for the necessary transfer of ownerhip.

The repository would

handle all material sent to it, and this would minimize the work required at individual institutions.

Features of such a system are: (a) there must be

central direction; (b) freedom of action by individual institutions is considerably reduced;

(c) cost savings should be substantial; (d) a

clear-cut, easily understood system should result which will provide a one-stop location for materials that come within the criteria adopted; (e) a clearinghouse for duplicate disposal and national interlending base can be grafted on to the model relatively easily; and (f) international

cooperation

is facilitated through a designated focal point for the supply of publications. Such a system would seem to be particularly suitable for smaller countries with centrally planned economies, and for less developed countries where library and information resources are not well developed and existing patterns not set into routines that are incapable of change. 2.

National repository with voluntary deposit

Alternatively a national system could be more flexible, allowing all institutions to send to a national store material that they regarded as little used (by their own criteria) or for which they no longer had space. sub-option of this model might provide for the retention of ownership of materials for a given (and limited) period of time to permit the return of

A

82 deposited items should subsequent demand require it; this would allow cruder selection at the first stage of disposal and so save money in the depositing libraries.

Such a repository could be separately managed, or it could be

part of the national library, whether as a separate department or integrated into the main stock (unneeded duplicates having first been removed). Features of this model, compared with the previous one, are: (a) there is less central control; (b) individual institutions would have greater freedom; (c) cost savings should be considerable (though less); (d) the system for locating materials is less clear-cut; and (e) some duplicate disposal and international cooperation are possible. Such a system would seem best suited to small and medium sized developed countries with non-federal political structures, and with substantial library resources and well-established patterns of information provision, and where changes to the systems for storage are possible and desirable, although such changes are likely to require considerable changes of attitude and possibly of local regulations and laws. 3.

Network of local and regional repositories

A third possible system is a coordinated network of local and regional repositories to handle all types of literature within predetermined geographical areas.

Such provision would take account of geographical,

transport and communications difficulties and also of the likely degree of self-sufficiency in literature provision in each area.

Deposit could be

mandatory or voluntary, and a sub-option for retention of ownership could be offered if required. Such a model would afford little central control and possibly better local access to material, but it would be expensive to organize and maintain. There would be considerable duplication of materials between repositories, and at the same time many requests for deposited material would have to go to more than one regional repository before being satisfied, unless a union list of the holdings of all repositories were constructed. 4.

Distributed repository function

A fourth possibility is the distribution of the repository function among several, perhaps many, institutions, each of which would assume or be given a responsibility for retaining, or receiving from others in the system, items

83 in given categories (e.g. by subject, or language, or country of publication).

This option could be national, regional, or by type of

institution (e.g. academic libraries).

Capital costs of construction could

be saved, and collections with existing strengths could be further reinforced in this way.

However, the costs of organization and retrieval would probably

be very high in relation to the benefits attained. Preferred types of repository system In practice the most satisfactory types of repository seem to be those that serve a very limited geographical area, and those that serve a very large number of institutions.

In the first case, close day-to-day cooperation is

possible, and material can if necessary be supplied the same day as it is requested.

In the second case, duplication can be reduced on a sufficiently

large scale, with a corresponding reduction in the total space occupied, to justify the problems and costs of operation - including the cost of transferring material and catalogue records to the repository and the cost and delays of transporting material subsequently to requesting institutions. Also, as noted earlier, conservation can be more easily achieved.

In any

case passive storage - the mere receipt of withdrawn materials - yields fewer benefits than active storage, which pools some of the resources of participating institutions to extend the materials available to them. Conclusions Despite some excellent examples of planning and of practice, it must be said that repositories are a low priority in most countries, that opposition to them still exists, and that such developments as there are are largely piecemeal.

A repository, if it is to serve a useful purpose as well as

storing material for future generations must be carefully planned, in all its major aspects of siting, function, contents and staffing, in conjunction with other national aspects of information policy such as interlending, legal deposit, and document supply generally.

In less developed countries this is

at least theoretically possible, although it is always difficult for present generations to foresee future needs.

In developed countries, particularly

when faced with economic recession on a world scale, decisions are too often taken not on the basis of what is desirable and efficient in the long term

84 but what is necessary, expedient and affordable now.

Since repositories both

in their planning and their purpose are long-term ventures, purely current considerations are inimical to their proper implementation.

Repositories are not glamorous.

They do not have the immediacy of on-line

retrieval, the excitement of new techniques, or the human satisfaction of community information services.

Their contents may appear outdated and

largely irrelevant to current and future needs.

Yet the retention of

publications is fundamental to library and information activities, and it is short-sighted to concentrate on the techniques of exploiting information if the information itself is being slowly but inexorably lost.

85

7:

INTERLENDING, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL

The Need for A c t i o n ^ 1 ' Interlending as an essential ingredient in national plans Once publications have been acquired, their full availability to users must be ensured.

The need for interlending has been stated in Chapters 5 and 6 to

be an essential concomitant of acquisition and repository programmes.

No

single institution can be self-sufficient in information provision and every institution will need to call upon resources held in other collections.

Even

where acquisition is thought desirable this is not always possible as only publications of the last two or three years are normally available for purchase.

The mere acquisition and retention of material are of limited

value; the strength of such national programmes lies in the availability of the material.

As noted earlier, local availability can be optimized and

existing resources maximized only if reliance can be placed on the availability of material acquired by other institutions. It may be held that the nature of local acquisition will determine the volume and nature of interlending demand and the nature of a national acquisition programme will determine the volume and nature of international demand.

However, one of the main determinants of demand is the existence of

an organized and efficient interlending system.

(1)

To take an example of a

The main sources of information for this chapter are: Line, M.B. and others. National interlending system: a comparative study of existing systems and possible models. Paris: Unesco, 1980 (PGI-79/WS/24/ Rev) and Line, M.B. and others. The International provision and supply of publications. Paris: Unesco, 1981 (PGI-81/WS/30).

86 country for which fairly accurate figures over a period of time are available, in the United Kingdom interlending grew from an estimated 400,000 items requested in 1962 to an estimated 3,350,000 in 1977.

One of the

reasons for this was undoubtedly the creation of the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and later the establishment of the British Library Lending Division, which handles about three quarters of all interlending requests generated by British institutions. Factors inhibiting

interlending

Although the figures for the United Kingdom show a proportionately greater increase than those for other countries for which figures are available, interlending in most countries has increased significantly in recent years. This reflects the growing inability of local institutions to meet the needs of their users.

What was regarded not very long ago as a marginal activity

has become a necessity, which merits thorough examination and planning.

In

few countries has its scale or importance been recognized, and rarely has it benefited from systematic analysis as an integral part of national library planning. Many countries have mechanisms, procedures and practices, which may or may not form a coherent system; they are often informal and may have no element of obligation.

As was noted in Chapter 5 informal arrangements can make a

valuable contribution, but they are at best only a partial solution to a much larger problem.

In many countries a high proportion of requests are

unsatisfied, delays are unacceptably long, and demand itself is constrained by low expectation.

This last point is of particular importance.

In many

countries where interlending demand is low little need for improvement may be felt.

However, the figures above for the United Kingdom illustrate how the

introduction of an efficient system can unleash a large volume of latent demand.

Systematic measures must be taken if these problems are to be

overcome and the needs of users are to be met. In many countries, as already noted, interlending is accorded low priority, even by professionals themselves.

This is understandable when

libraries and other institutions must fight very hard to obtain small budgets, and even then may face considerable additional difficulties in obtaining foreign currency to buy needed material from other countries, which

87 may be slow to arrive and involve cumbersome formalities.

Having thus

obtained for their own users with considerable difficulty a limited amount of material which cannot easily be replaced, librarians are understandably reluctant to put it at risk by lending it to others in remote locations or by entrusting it to postal services which are slow and unreliable.

This need to

safeguard precious limited resources, possibly officially classified as permanent assets, is often reflected in the personal responsibility imposed on librarians in some countries for items in their care. A shortage of resources, far from encouraging cooperation, often produces the opposite effect.

It may be considered impossible to make collections

that are too small to meet most of the needs of local clients available to a wider readship.

Additional resources for local libraries should go hand in

hand with freer availability to other libraries: both are essential elements in any national plan. The need for systematic planning Systematic measures within each country are needed not only to meet the needs of its own inhabitants, but also to fulfil responsibilities to other countries.

The need for each country to acquire all its national imprints

has already been stated more than once.

Each country must also accept

responsibility for making them available to other countries, either by loan of the original or, within the terms of prevailing copyright legislation, as copies, even if only as a last resort.

A country that has an organized and

effective system for lending publications within its own borders is much more likely to be able to meet requests received from other countries. To facilitate the availability of material on a systematic basis both to meet the needs of individual countries and to meet international responsibilities national interlending policies and systems are needed. Policies and Systems A national interlending policy creates the programme to enable the lending* by one institution to another, in the surest and fastest way, of publications that are not available in the institution where they are needed.

Lending is held to include the sending of photographic and other reproductions in place of the original.

88 A national interlending system is a planned and explicit set of mechanisms, procedures and practices that covers either the actual mechanics of fulfilling the interlending policy, or, in the absence of a policy, the procedures and practices for lending material.

A system is a set of elements

with relations between the elements such that the set may be looked at as a whole.

Where there is no policy, the system becomes of paramount importance.

Most countries do not at present have either policies or systems in the sense defined here. Requirements for Effective Interlending The necessary elements of an organized system are: the collection of documents (treated in Chapter 5); means of locating documents; and procedures and mechanisms for requesting and supplying publications.

The main criteria

by which they should be judged are the satisfaction rate, speed of supply, and cost.

That is, an interlending system should be able to supply a

significant proportion of requests, it should do so quickly, and at reasonable cost.

This chapter therefore concentrates primarily on the

problems that have to be overcome if these criteria are to be met. Satisfaction rate The satisfaction rate or 'fill rate" depends ultimately on acquisition, treated in Chapter 5, where the need for a close link between a national acquisition programme and a national interlending system was emphasized. Where no such programme exists the interlending system must take this into account.

Where there is a strong acquisition programme, whether

or cooperative, the interlending system may be built on it.

centralized

Some national

acquisition programmes have evidently not devoted sufficient attention to the need for the material to be available.

Monitoring of interlending demand is

necessary to ensure that items required are acquired in sufficient copies. However, failure to satisfy requests may also be associated with an inability to locate the material.

This can be reduced by effective and up to

date union catalogues or, in the case of an organized acquisition policy, by guides to resources (e.g. indicating subject strengths of collections without listing their individual holdings).

89 Items may be in use or otherwise unavailable when requested.

This is a

common cause of failure to meet requests, especially for recent publications. It can be reduced by more use of photocopies in place of loans.

Union

catalogues with multiple locations can help, but items in demand may often be in local use when needed.

The provision of multiple copies can also help,

but this again is a function of the acquisition policy. Items may not be loanable, because they are (for example) rare, fragile, needed for reference, or recently acquired. cause of failure.

This too is a fairly common

A collection dedicated to interlending can eliminate such

problems for recent publications.

Older publications can be made more

available by a repository system (Chapter 6) or by copying (Chapter 8).

In

some countries, as mentioned above, librarians are held personally responsible for their stock and are therefore very reluctant to lend items. Such responsibilities conflict with the free flow of information and should be removed. In developed, and some developing, countries the heaviest demand for material is likely to fall on recent science and technology journals. Initial concentration on this area should result in the satisfaction of a significant proportion of requests at relatively low cost.

The highest

percentage of failures is likely to occur with items in very high demand which may already be in use, and with those in very low demand that may not have been acquired. The warning given above that demand is as much a function of supply as of need should be reiterated.

A system that supplied a high proportion of 5,000

requests would almost certainly be far inferior to one that supplied a lower proportion of 50,000 requests.

Low expectations can restrict demand to those

items for which success is virtually certain.

The satisfaction rate is

therefore only a partial indicator of performance, and must be taken together with the volume of demand. Speed of supply The system should aim to satisfy requests quickly; items supplied too late to be of use should be considered as failures.

Supply times of longer than one

or two weeks rarely inconvenience most users seriously, but expectation of delay can limit confidence in and use of the system, which should ideally be capable of very fast responses in the cases of urgency.

90 Delays at the requesting library may be associated with inefficient internal procedures, which can be improved only by local administration.

The

need to check the details of requests may be a problem in smaller libraries with limited bibliographical resources. supply can also cause delays.

Selecting a possible source of

This is necessary with union catalogues with

multiple locations and with subject specialization schemes, but it may be eliminated if a national centre handles all requests, though if such centres do not themselves have an extensive loan stock the task of selecting a source of supply is merely shifted to them.

The use of a variety of forms and

procedures to make requests to different centres can be reduced by cooperative action and eliminated if only one loan centre is used. Delays in transmission can be caused by long distances if communications are poor. Delays in sending requests can be eliminated by the use of Telex or the computer; also by the telephone, though this has other disadvantages.

It

is harder to speed up the supply of the documents themselves, but slow communications can sometimes be reduced by use of express mail or by use of rail and/or road transport, and by the sending of photocopies instead of lending originals.

Telefacsimile may make a significant contribution to fast

transmission in due course, but operational difficulties, incompatibility of much equipment, and cost have hitherto prevented its use on any but a small scale. Delays at the supplying library may be caused by inefficient internal procedures, partly because local libraries design their operations primarily to serve local users.

This problem can be eliminated by a dedicated loan

collection and reduced if all requests go through a single centre.

The need

to handle a variety of forms and procedures noted above can also cause delays at the supplying library and can be met by the same remedial action.

A major

cause of delay and frustration is the receipt of requests with inadequate information, especially if they have to be returned to the requesting library.

A centre with large bibliographic resources can identify some

inadequate references, and some may be found in a central loan collection without further checking.

The need to send repeated requests to alternative

sources of supply, which is a very serious cause of delay, can be reduced by an extensive central loan collection or by a limited central collection supported by other selected sources.

91 In general, speed of supply is likely to be most important for science and technology journals.

Requests should pass through a minimum of channels and

be handled expeditiously at all stages.

Channels offering the best chance of

success should be used first and interlending requests should be given the same priority by the libraries that receive them as requests from their local users.

The overall design of the system should be as simple as possible,

with maximum use of standardized procedures.

Supply of the great majority of

requests within three weeks, with provision for faster service when necessary, appears to be a reasonable aim. Costs Given the need to satisfy a significant proportion of requests within a reasonable period of time, how can this be achieved at minimum cost?

Most of

the factors relating to level of satisfaction and speed of supply recur in a consideration of costs, but for convenience they are repeated here. Inefficient internal procedures, the use of a variety of forms and procedures, the need to check inadequate or inaccurate requests, the need to select a possible source of supply, the need to make more than one application, possibly to several sources, and the use of fast methods of transmitting requests and documents all contribute to high costs.

In each

ease remedial action has been suggested above. Further factors associated with high costs include reclaiming and accounting procedures.

Repayment is not always required, but the waiving of

charges may make borrowing appear cheaper than acquisition, when this may not be so if all costs are taken into account; in this way a library may be discouraged from assessing the best balance between purchase and borrowing. The claiming and making of payment on an item-by-item basis are undoubtedly very expensive in administrative costs.

The use of deposit accounts and

pre-paid coupons oan minimize these costs.

Countries with currency

difficulties may prefer the use of Unesco coupons.

Where libraries are in

balance payment may be waived. Union catalogues are a feature of interlending systems in most countries. They are expensive to construct and maintain although some of the costs may be 'hidden' in cooperating libraries.

Such costs can be reduced by reducing

the need for union catalogues and by rationalizing the selection of libraries included in them or of their holdings.

92 All these factors are of course interrelated. problem could increase another.

Steps taken to reduce one

However improvements in some aspects are

independent of others and can be made without reference to wider issues. Even within existing systems, substantial improvements are possible, though these factors will vary in importance from country to country. Other considerations Before much improvement can be made to interlending in a country, the existing situation should be analyzed; and when a system is operating, its effectiveness should be monitored. collection of statistics.

In both cases this requires the

In many countries such statistics are not

collected; and in some, especially developing countries, some of the data ideally required may be difficult or impossible to obtain.

However, basic

statistics on the volume of demand, the form of publications requested, the source of supply, satisfaction level and speed of supply may prove sufficient for planning purposes.

Planning should in any case not await the

comprehensive collection of statistics. Whatever system is planned, an interlending centre is needed.

Its

functions may be limited to coordination, monitoring and modification as required, or it may itself be a dedicated lending library. maintain the main union catalogues.

It may house and

It should be linked with, if not part

of, any national library planning centre. Mention has been made above of the use of photographic and other reproductions.

The advantages that this affords - continuing availability of

the original, and faster and cheaper transmission by letter post - must be set against the cost of equipment, which in developing countries may be prohibitive.

Some countries have additional problems of spare parts,

adequate paper, fluctuating and erratic electric supply and unfavourable climatic conditions.

Further, if copying fees have to be paid, high

additional costs may be incurred, and where permission to copy has to be obtained serious delays may result.

Ways must be sought of reconciling the

legitimate rights of authors, publishers, libraries and users so that the communication of information is not hindered. Mention has also been made of union catalogues.

They are to be found in

virtually all countries and may play a primary or supporting role.

For this

reason, because they are costly and because experience has shown them to be

93 beset with problems, it is very important that they are well planned. Comprehensive coverage of all libraries in a country is usually impracticable and the search for completeness is likely to produce high costs, long backlogs and numerous other disadvantages.

The libraries to be selected for

inclusion need to be carefully identified to yield the maximum number of separate items possible.

If direct access by users is desired, the

geographical spread of libraries needs to be considered.

The reporting of

new entries and withdrawals must be subject to a regular timetable to which libraries must be required to adhere.

The form of entries should be

consistent; in general it is easier to achieve consistency with short entries. costs.

The use of standard codes like ISBNs can aid reporting and reduce The fewer union catalogues the better, but where there are several or

many union catalogues in a country they should if at all possible have similar entry formats to facilitate reporting and also merging if later desired. While conventional publications are likely to remain the main channel for the recording and transmission of information, account should be taken of technological developments.

Use of the computer for transmitting requests

and the facsimile transmission of documents will increase.

Computer

technology can facilitate the construction, maintenance and use of union catalogues.

The electronic storage and on-line

transmission of full texts,

new forms of high density storage, television and satellite technology, will all have an increasing impact.

The continuing movement towards the

electronic transmission of information may widen still further the gap between developing and industrialized countries, unless serious attempts are made in the former to provide and maintain the very sophisticated infrastructure needed for its exploitation. Reference has been made to the need for standardized procedures for interlending; it is also implicit in the definition of a national interlending system.

To ensure an understanding and the observance of these

procedures a published code of national interlibrary lending practice is desirable.

It should provide clear guidance on directions and obligations,

though these may be kept to a minimum to allow individual institutions to make special arrangements and impose discretionary limitations according to their needs.

It would thus provide a useful framework for interlending

procedures and help limit the haphazard activities to be found in many countries that are themselves a serious constraint on use.

94 The Organization of National Interlending Systems An interlending system may be planned as a single national system, or on a regional (sub-national) basis.

Regional systems may be appropriate in

countries with a federal constitution, in very large countries with severe communications difficulties, in countries where loss rates in transmission are significant, where different languages or cultures exist, or where the volume of interlending is high and library provision in each region is plentiful.

Effective regional organization involves problems of coordination

and may be costly in total national terms since a high level of duplication of stock between regions is required. Systems may be organized on a hierarchical basis, whereby requests go through a series of levels in a prescribed order - for example, local first, then regional, then national.

Hierarchical systems may be slow unless a high

proportion of requests can be satisfied at the first level.

Otherwise it

should be possible to bypass lower levels when speed of supply is important. Different systems may exist to serve different types of library.

However,

these lead to a duplication of effort between systems and greatly increase costs.

They add complexity and lead to delays if requests have to be

switched between systems. Different systems may also serve different subject or language groups. For practical purposes knowledge cannot easily be thus divided. based on specialization require a high degree of coordination.

Systems Also,

categories of low demand are likely to receive low priority in any national plan and be poorly provided for. While single unified systems appear in most cases to be preferable there is a case for having different systems for major categories of material such as journals and books, since their requirements are rather different.

This

point is touched on below. Possible Interlending Systems The conditions and needs to which a national interlending system must respond are unique to each country.

A number of factors, most of them independent of

the library system, will affect the design of a national interlending system.

95 These include geography and population; political structure; stage and nature of development and future development priorities; education and research; book production; existing library resources; and copyright law.

Thus

different solutions may be anticipated to a range of problems which are seen in different ways.

Some basic and simplified models are outlined below, to

give substance to the considerations noted above, and to indicate their relative advantages and disadvantages. 1.

Concentration on a single collection

Interlending demand could be concentrated largely on a single collection, whether dedicated to interlending or combining interlending with other functions.

A combination of functions may reduce the efficiency of each, but

a combined national reference/lending collection merits consideration, especially in developing countries.

A well organized central collection is

economical for libraries to use as it offers a single channel for most requests, and direct costs of handling requests are low.

It can be organized

specifically for interlending, or at least for the fast retrieval and supply of items.

A comprehensive collection can supply all or most categories of

material to all categories of user, and it can match provision to demand since performance can easily be monitored. However, the costs of establishing such a collection are high and unit costs will be high unless demand is heavy.

A lack of adequate financial

support, or the risk of damage to the central collection, could undermine the whole interlending system.

While costs alone may rule out a comprehensive

central collection, especially in developing countries, there is a strong argument for partial centralized collections able to meet a significant proportion of demand, especially carefully chosen collections of high use journals.

There are various ways of identifying the contents of such

collections, although none of them is without its disadvantages, and the matter requires more s t u d y ^ .

Centralized supply of books, which may

receive more demand in the earlier stages of a country's development, is harder to justify and achieve, because concentration of demand is less and identification of items in advance of demand is harder than with journals.

Kefford, B. and Line, M. Core collections of journals for national interlending purposes. Interlending Review, 10 (2), 1982, 35-13.

96 2.

Concentration on a few libraries

The concentration of demand on a few libraries holding a high proportion of titles in a country can result in a high level of satisfaction.

This system

is most effective if the libraries concentrate on different subject or other areas.

The procedures used need to be fully compatible, and strong central

planning and coordination are essential.

The substantial additional costs

faced by these libraries both in extending national provision by acquisitions and in supplying items on a large scale should be reimbursed.

There is a

danger of conflict between service to local users and an interlending service, but otherwise the advantages and disadvantages are similar to, though less extreme than, concentration on a single resource.

This system

may be suitable for smaller developed countries, or some developing countries. 3.

Planned allocation among selected libraries

The provision of material can be allocated between a larger number of institutions on a more or less systematic basis.

Total national costs may be

high because of extensive duplication, there is a danger of conflict between lending and other functions, and the speedy supply of material may be difficult to ensure when it forms only a small part of the library's operations.

A library may no longer be willing, or indeed able, to acquire

in the national interest material not needed by its local users if its financial resources are restricted.

Such a system may however be suitable

for some large developed countries that already have a sound basis for it in the form of well developed national acquisition programmes and subject specialization schemes. 4.

Unplanned decentralized access

Alternatively, libraries may be taken as they are, without any effort to extend the nation's acquisitions, and total reliance may be placed on union catalogues.

The difficulties associated with union catalogues have already

been touched upon.

They include: lack of currency of additions and

withdrawals; inadequate coverage; difficulty of use; and high costs of maintenance and use.

They tend to be most successful when they are few and

simple, and limited to libraries with significant holdings, thus concentrating demand on those libraries.

Such a system cannot be monitored

easily to ensure that provision matches demand. to provide items in low or high demand.

It is particularly difficult

On-line access to computer-held

97 union catalogues speeds locating and may speed requesting, but it does not increase the ability and willingness to supply items, and the supply of publications themselves is no quicker than in non-automated decentralized systems. Combined concentration and decentralization The basic models outlined above rarely can or do exist in a pure form - even total decentralization tends in practice to concentrate demand on relatively few libraries, and a central collection, however large, needs to be supported by other sources. The optimal solution in most countries will consist in a balance between concentration and decentralization.

The further the system goes in the

direction of concentration, the more efficient it is likely to be, but the best balance will depend on local circumstances, especially on the volume of demand and the balance of demand between books and journals.

Since

centralization is more feasible for journals than for books, one possibility is centralized, or highly concentrated, supply for journals and decentralized, or less concentrated, supply for books.

It should however be

emphasized that all efficient systems require some form of planning. International Interlending The requirements for international interlending are essentially the same as those that apply to national interlending systems: the initial provision of material, its location and its supply.

The major problems to be overcome are

also the same: low satisfaction rates, slow speed of supply and high costs. The solution of these problems requires similar measures.

It cannot be

emphasized too strongly that efficient international interlending is impossible without efficient national interlending systems within each country. One fundamental difference concerns provision.

This is properly a

function of acquisition and has already been referred to.

International

availability should aim at exhaustivity, that is, it should be capable of supplying all publications.

The obvious and only reliable place for a

comprehensive collection of publications is in their country of origin.

As

stated several times above, each country must accept responsibility for making its national imprints available to other countries, as well as to its own citizens.

98 It is also suggested that requests should not be sent abroad for the loan of material that exists within a country.

To help ensure this, national

centres are desirable as channels for incoming and outgoing requests.

If a

national system is by-passed by its own libraries there is little incentive for improvement, and little knowledge on which to base such improvement. Each country should and can plan and implement a national interlending system, but worldwide planning for international availability is unrealistic. Theoretical systems may be designed, but their practical implementation requires action by numerous individual countries, and this cannot be guaranteed.

However, as with national interlending systems the

standardization of procedures can bring significant advantages.

To this end

the IFLA Office for International Lending has drawn up a set of Principles and Guidelines for international lending as a code of recommended practice*, and promotes the uniform use of an International Request Form. While each country must be able to supply its own publications, direct application in every case to the country of publication would prove cumbersome and produce an uneven response.

Since some countries will be able

to justify and probably wish to develop large collections of foreign publications for their own purposes, these may be able to provide a good service to other countries at reasonable cost.

This happens at present in a

limited number of cases; most international demand seems to be placed on a small number of centres.

The existence of such collections may obviate the

need for similar extensive collections in neighbouring countries. Alternatively countries within a region of the world may decide by international agreement to establish a regional lending collection.

While

this may be attractive in principle, there is a significant difference between the establishment by an individual country for its own purposes of a collection that incidentally can meet regional needs and cooperative agreements between countries.

The latter face considerable obstacles, not

least those of funding and administration.

*

Experience to date suggests that

The Principles and Guidelines are published in A Brief Guide to Centres of International Lending and Photocopying 2nd ed. Boston Spa, Wetherby, UK: IFLA Office for International Lending, 1979. They have also been widely translated and published elsewhere.

99 to overcome these obstacles is not easy, and further study is needed to see if such systems have any real advantage over access to a few very large collections or to the country of publication.

Similar considerations apply

to regional cooperative schemes based on the allocation of responsibilities among the countries concerned or the interlinking of their interlending systems to form in effect a single system. Conclusions Interlending is in serious and urgent need of improvement.

Improvements can

be made in present systems and by designing better systems, but these improvements will at best be limited unless they are planned as part of a national library plan encompassing also a national acquisition programme and preferably a national repository programme. the nature and extent of national action.

Internationally, much depends on

100

8: SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF PUBLICATION Introduction While the availability of conventional books and journals is far from universal and much can be done to improve their identification,

acquisition

and exploitation, certain categories of publication present additional problems.

Each merits more detailed study than can be provided in this book.

In general, the principles, criteria and requirements of particular

functions

treated in the preceding chapters apply equally to such material, but for some the problems of identification and acquistion may be accentuated, while for others, special problems may be associated with conservation and availability on loan. Official Publications The volume of official publishing, both national and international is very large: United Nations publications alone have been estimated to account for five per cent of world output of hard copy publications.

As far as

production is concerned, intergovernmental organizations, as opposed to commercial - type publishers, have a limited power of choice over the documents they publish.

This may largely explain why the quantity produced

is so large and why according to some estimates 85 per cent of it goes unread.

It should be mentioned also that the commercial-type

publishing

activities of intergovernmental organizations, concentrated on a small number of bodies (not only the United Nations family but the Organisation for European Cooperation and Development, the European Communities, etc.) reach a volume that puts many of them high in the rank order of publishers by number of publications issued^

(1)

Cherns, J.J. Intergovernmental organizations as publishers - a critical look. Paper presented at the Second World Symposium on International Documentation. Brussels, 20-22 June 1980. (UNITAR/AIL/SYM/2WP.1/3).

101 Official publications (both national and international) can form a significant proportion of acquisitions in many developing countries. may be sold through the retail trade.

Some

Some countries have centralized much

of their departmental publishing and distribution, although some items, particularly non-conventional literature, can be obtained only from individual departments. wider distribution.

Some agencies use commercial publishers to ensure

Deposit arrangements with a number of specified

libraries are a common means of distribution but particular apply to low-classified and semi-published material.

difficulties

Other libraries rely on

gift and purchase, but rising prices limit the latter. Despite the various channels established to distribute official documents, many inadequacies remain and much needs to be done to improve their accessibility and use.

However, action in this area seems to be difficult

because of the complexity of the situation.

Unesco has commissioned several

studies in this area: one on the availability and use of official publications, in co-operation with IFLA, one on the use of United Nations documents in three developing countries, and one on the production, control and use of government documents in the Caribbean.

It is hoped that the

results of these studies will help to identify suitable actions. Non-conventional

Publications

Non-conventional publications, often called 'grey literature', are those that are not issued through the usual commercial publishing and distribution channels and therefore present particular difficulties in bibliographic control, acquisition and provision.

M u c h is produced in the form of

duplicated typescript or in microform, mainly microfiche.

Some may be listed

in national bibliographies and rather more in abstracting and indexing journals, but a large proportion is not bibliographically controlled, and this is inevitably reflected in incomplete holdings in collections of 'grey literature'.

Various measures have been taken.

For example, in the United

States of America and the USSR, NTIS and VINITI respectively are concerned with report literature, and in the Federal Republic of Germany the Central Subject Libraries (Zentrale Fachbibliotheken) make an effort to cover grey literature within their particular fields.

There are similar activities in

other countries in the collection and supply of grey literature.

102 Internationally, the Commission of European Communities has launched SIGLE (System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe), based on designated centres in member countries.

Worldwide systems such as AGRIS have a

particular concern with grey literature, which is especially important in fields covered by this System.

Nevertheless coverage is still imperfect and

much valuable published information remains unknown and exploited. Rare and Valuable Publications Rare and valuable publications also merit consideration as a special category.

Older works are not, nor can they ever be, held solely in a

national centre; foreign language publications in particular may be held in substantial numbers in older libraries.

The bibliographic recording of such

material may be well advanced, but may not use current bibliographic standards, so that the construction of union catalogues is made more difficult.

In most developed countries there are probably substantial

quantities of undiscovered or unrecorded material, for example in churches, monasteries or great houses.

Conservation is also a special problem, though

the greatest need for action probably relates not to very old publications, but rather to publications produced after the 18th century, when poorer paper began to be used.

The need to conserve precious books also limits the

ability of library to supply copies, since ordinary photocopying machines can involve damage to the originals. Better access to rare books certainly requires union catalogues.

How

these are compiled must be a matter for each country; in some countries the quantity of material, its geographical scatter, and its present bibliographic coverage may be such that the task has to be broken down into manageable segments.

Clearly the work needs careful coordination and the use of

standard entries. Although, as noted above, the use of ordinary copying machines may not be acceptable in many cases, careful photography should enable most rare and precious books to be made available as copies.

When microfilms are made, it

is important that they should be recorded in a national register of microform masters; or, still better, copies can be supplied to a central collection for subsequent availability.

Facsimiles are an alternative way of making older

and rare books more widely available, but they are possible only when a reasonable market can be identified, and this will apply to relatively few books.

103 Printed Music Most printed music is essentially similar to books although it includes a high proportion of awkward and flimsy items, and. music for performance, especially orchestral and vocal sets, can present problems.

Music is however

more complex bibliographically than books and a lack of bibliographic uniformity can cause problems, for example in the compilation of union catalogues.

Internationally music is less restricted by language problems

and this is reflected in the international character of much music publishing.

This can give rise to problems in identifying national imprints

for collection.

It is safest for each country to collect for loan each item

with an imprint in that country, regardless of whether other countries are also mentioned in the imprint. The emphasis should, as with other categories of material, be on collection for loan.

Reference provision of music scores is of particularly

limited value since their availability for performance is important.

Since

interlending demand for music tends to be relatively low, some form of central coordination of acquisitions within a country is desirable to avoid the unnecessary duplication of some items and the complete omission of others.

The problems of union catalogues already noted may suggest

centralized provision, or at least concentration on a few large institutions. However, such provision, although not excessively costly, will be beyond the resources of many countries, and the best solution in most eases may be a combination of centralized and decentralized provision; a centralized collection can concentrate on expensive and difficult items while reliance is placed on other libraries for other printed music.

Whether union catalogues

are needed or not depends on whether there are enough significant music collections to justify them; in countries that have only two or three important collections they should not be needed. Ephemera A category of publication that creates special problems is one that can be loosely called 'ephemera 1 .

It consists of publications often containing only

a few pages and produced in small numbers, aimed at a particular audience at a particular time and often relevant only to a particular locality.

Though

not intended to be of permanent value these publications can be of the greatest importance and interest for historical, social, political and economic research.

Identification and acquisition are also exceptionally

104

difficult, and collection of much of this material must be done locally. Ephemeral publications are often on poor quality paper and are difficult to preserve for future use.

Their bibliographic control also poses huge

problems; normal cataloguing rules are scarcely applicable and the quantity of this material is so vast that the resources of national bibliographic agencies would be overstretched.

This is another kind of publication that

requires special study if it is to be made widely available. Maps Significant problems may attach to the management of map collections, though not all of these affect their availability.

Bibliographic control in many

countries is inadequate, though a number of national bibliographies do include cartographic material.

The production of such material is

concentrated on a relatively small number of specialist companies and total output may not be very large. Older material also tends to be handled by a few specialist suppliers. Particular problems may be created by the format of the material if it is to be supplied by post, and maps in which the treatment of colour or minute detail is of significance may not be amenable to quick and cheap methods of photoreproduction.

A further problem, not limited to cartographic material,

concerns security; a number of countries impose limits on the availability of maps above a certain scale. Non-Book Media The provision of so-called non-book media - not including microforms, which are merely miniaturized printed matter, but including films, sound recordings, slides, video-cassettes, etc. - is gradually being accepted as an important part of a library's function. systematically in very few countries.

However, such material is collected Not all national libraries accept

responsibility for its collection and cataloguing, and cooperative acquisition and cataloguing schemes are very rare.

"Publication" is often

difficult to define, since many non-book media are produced primarily for temporary or institutional use.

Bibliographic control is very inadequate,

and this affects the knowledge of and consequently the demand for non-book media.

It is doubtful if these media will ever be identified with the same

ease as printed documents.

105 There are also obvious limitations as to where and how such material can be used - for example, it all requires some kind of machinery, and some non-book media of the past need for their use equipment that is already superseded; such developments as have taken place have therefore tended to concentrate on the simpler formats, for which suitable equipment tends to be more widely available.

Some of the limitations have been reduced, and

advances in other areas can be expected, for example by converting superseded formats to current formats and by producing cheaper and more standard equipment, but problems will remain.

It is also very difficult to predict

future requirements. There seems to be little outright demand for improvement, and this whole category would probably rank low among most librarians in times of financial difficulty.

The cost of packaging and transmitting non-book media as well as

the expense of staff time in checking items, indicate that charges for borrowers, if they are to be made, would have to be higher than for printed publications.

The fear of damage also discourages many libraries from

participating in, or formulating, an audiovisual interlending scheme.

If

originals cannot be lent, duplication, although a relatively simple process for many categories of non-book media, increases costs and may encounter problems of copyright. Electronic Text The electronic processing, storage and transmission of information is as yet in its infancy.

It is highly flexible, and can in theory keep all material

so stored permanently - and quickly - available on demand. flexibility gives rise to special problems.

However its very

It requires communication links

and terminals and it depends on electrical power.

It is potentially subject

to constant change, so that there may be no 'archival 1 preservation, and legal deposit is difficult to ensure.

text for permanent The physical forms

of storage may be shortlived and need regular regeneration, and the problems of bibliographical control have scarcely begun to be tackled.

The problems

of electronic text are seen at their most acute with videotex, which makes textual material available for purposes that are largely ephemeral, so combining the difficult features of both electronic text and ephemera.

106

9

CONCLUSIONS

Introduction Timely and accurate information is essential for economic, social and personal development.

The availability of publications is at present far

from universal, and serious efforts are needed to improve the availability of publications to users. been stated.

Actions appropriate to each function have already

Th is concluding chapter picks out the more important of these,

and in addition considers the need for actions that cut across functions, as well as the agents of action

UAP

if it is to have any practical meaning

must be action-orientated•

The basic aim of UAP is the improved availability of publications to users.

There is clearly a need to identify types of user, both actual and

potential, and their needs. resources and services.

Similarly there is a need to assess existing

If resources are matched against needs the extent

and nature of remedial action to be taken can be seen.

Obstacles to Availability An attempt has been made throughout this book to keep in mind the very real obstacles that have to be overcome if information requirements are to be met. It may nevertheless be felt, especially in developing countries, that theoretical analyses of requirements are not always related closely enough to practical realities.

The barriers to UAP are indeed formidable.

understandable if some of them seem overwhelming.

It is

However, it is better to

take a more positive view, and identify their nature and strength in order to explore ways of overcoming them.

107 Obstacles to be faced may be: economic: a shortage of resources, human, financial and material, which limits the services that can be provided and the scope for improvement; technical: a lack of reprographic equipment, insufficient maintenance, shortage of paper and spare parts, erratic electrical supply, inadequate printing and binding equipment, lack of equipment to use microforms, audio-visual media and computerized services; -

socio-cultural: low education level, poor motivation to use services, poor repackaging and presentation of information, language barriers, lack of training and tradition in the use of information, resistance to change, the intangibility of many of the benefits of information; legal: unnecessary restrictions and procedures associated with the use of published material;

-

political: censorship

restrictions for reasons of security

the lack of

appropriate policies and plans and a suitable infrastructure, cumbersome and bureaucratic administrative and financial

procedures;

physical: distance from services, personal handicaps; functional: ineffective performance of systems, the lack of effective policies and procedures, lack of tools, inadequate bibliographic control by the book trade and libraries

insufficient trained personnel, lack of

attention to failures in library service. This list, extensive though it is, is doubtless incomplete.

However,

while some of these problems may be beyond the scope of UAP they can all be tackled.

They should be seen not as insuperable barriers but rather as a

stimulus for intense and continuing pressure for the provision of the necessary resources and for the necessary action. Basic Requirements of UAP The discussions in the preceding chapters indicate certain basic requirements of fundamental importance.

They may be summarized as follows:

Effective availability requires: -

an evaluation of the needs of actual and potential users and how far they can be met by and through publications;

-

a closer match of the publishing and distribution programmes of publishers in each country to the requirements of people within countries and internationally;

108 -

the creation or improvement of effective book trade channels to ensure the prompt availability of material to customers;

-

the development by libraries, documentation centres and archives of effective policies and procedures for the acquisition of material, whether by purchase, gift, exchange or other means, to serve present and future needs ;

-

the development by libraries, documentation centres and archives of effective policies and procedures for the supply of publications, in the original or as copies

-

to remote as well as to local users;

the permanent retention and conservation within each country of at least one copy of publications acquired by its libraries and archives;

-

the acceptance by individual countries of full responsibility for the acquisition, supply by loan and retention of all their own publications to meet the present and future needs of their own citizens and those of other countries; steps to increase and improve professional and technical manpower;

-

the development in as many people as possible of reading and facility in information handling from the earliest stages; the active involvement of users;

-

awareness and application of new technologies as appropriate. These basic requirements together constitute a set of fundamental

objectives.

However if these requirements are to be met planning

research

and action by various bodies are needed. National Information Planning and Development Since availability needs to be improved within each country, major responsibilities fall on individual countries if national and international requirements are to be fulfilled.

Each country must determine for itself how

availability can best be extended and improved.

National concerns,

development objectives, priorities and problems, which will be different from country to country

must be kept in view.

National information planning,

which is the framework for adequate availability, requires a national policy. As part of this policy responsibility must be assigned for assessing user needs, for providing services through appropriate structures such as libraries, for developing the professional and technical manpower required, for the education and continuing involvement of users, and for research and the introduction of new technology and research as necessary.

109 Planning must take account of practical possibilities and constraints. Attainable goals should be set within a realistic time schedule and entail moderate finances.

Actual and potential needs and available resources should

be identified and priorities should be set. Decision making cannot be done in a vacuum or as an abstract exercise. Political and social issues must be taken into account, pressure groups may exert influence, and there may be conflict between vested interests. Development planners, policy-makers and managers may not be aware of the value or importance of information, and since they may not themselves make much use of information systems and services, they may not consider them as a priority and give them the necessary support.

As noted in earlier chapters,

it may be necessary to try and produce evidence of ways in which information has contributed to development and to the solution of problems.

This is

especially needed in countries that lack a tradition in the use of information for problem solving.

Advisory or consultative bodies may be

necessary to provide liaison between information professionals, decision makers and user groups. National plans for library and information services exist in many by no means all, countries.

though

However, rarely do such plans incorporate the

supply of publications as an integral element.

There is often an assumption

that it is sufficient to acquire publications and record them bibliographically

Lending services, though they are the key element in

improving availability to remote users, are often paid scant if any attention, possibly because the need for availability is so obvious that it is not thought necessary to state it as an explicit objective. However, experience shows that unless objectives are clearly stated they fail to receive proper attention and as a result no action may be taken. Publications must be supplied because they contain needed information, and any national information policy must take account of this. National cooperation and coordination It has been stressed that the various elements and agents in the information community exist in a symbiotic relationship.

To take action on elements in

isolation is likely to produce results that are both more costly and less

110

effective than if action is planned on them as a whole; at the least there should be close cooperation between the elements. a more or less formal nature.

This requires machinery of

Since each function is a major one in its own

right working parties or sub-commissions may be set up to work out detailed plans and systems within an overall national information plan. Cooperative or coordinating machinery may be difficult to achieve if responsibilities are divided among a number of ministries and agencies; it may be necessary to allocate responsibilities and accountability to appropriate bodies, but allocation itself implies some central body

The

lack of coordinating machinery need not and should not preclude action by individual elements and on individual functions.

This may bring substantial

benefits and may so highlight deficiencies in other functions that the need for action on them too becomes more obvious.

Certainly no initiative in any

sector should be suppressed; rather, it should be encouraged and fitted into the whole picture.

Care should in any case be taken to avoid over-elaborate

machinery which could possibly hamper rather than promote improvements. A major obstacle to improvement may be the existence of well established and stable systems that are either resistant to change to meet new circumstances or that do not combine well with other systems, perhaps equally well established, serving other functions. will eventually cease to be effective.

If systems do not change they

The issue is not whether, but how and

when, change can be brought about, and how radical it is.

Piecemeal

modifications responding to short-term needs could make matters worse, but if a realistic long-term plan can be set out the various elements can work towards it.

Developing countries, which may start off with a clean sheet,

may actually hold an advantage over developed countries, where the long process of evolution may have produced a situation that is very difficult to change for administrative, economic, social and personal reasons. International

Cooperation

Improved availability within individual countries, especially for their own publications, will further international availability but not in itself fully achieve it.

Developing countries are faced with a particular need to acquire

and borrow significant quantities of material from industrialized countries while their own services are being developed.

However,

industrialized

111

countries also show a large, permanent and necessary reliance on importing and borrowing material from other countries.

Improvements to availability

within countries must therefore be accompanied by improvements to international availability, by strengthening the links and channels between individual countries to ensure that material can be bought or borrowed as and when required, that national developments are compatible with one another, and that assistance can be given when relevant to countries in need. The Need for Research Planning at both the national and international level requires research, to show the scale and nature of the problem and to indicate the benefits and costs of different courses of action.

The UAP studies undertaken to date

have attempted to analyse the major functions and proposed various models for each

These models present a number of basic solutions that may be suitable

for countries of different types and at different stages of development. Permutations and combinations of these models may be needed and additional and alternative solutions may be found. Improvements to availability are ultimately the responsibility of individual countries.

As already noted, the first step must be an analysis

of actual and potential needs, and an assessment of existing resources and of the scale and nature of other influencing factors, such as the efficiency of the communications network, development priorities expressed by governments, and the resources available for the improvement of existing services and the development of new ones. While information personnel, and especially users, may be well aware that publications are not universally available and that problems exist, there is a marked shortage of objective data on existing services.

Even when such

data are available, they rarely enable conclusions to be reached as to costs in relation to effectiveness.

Many published descriptions of systems give

little or no indication of performance.

For example, it is not enough to

show that a country has many libraries, that they are well endowed, and that there are extensive union catalogues; the questions that need to be asked are how far and how quickly users' needs for publications can be met.

Further,

much of the literature on developments expresses hope rather than positive intention, and rarely is evidence produced to support statements of needs and

112 possible solutions.

Sound planning must be based on facts, not on opinions.

Without adequate plans supported by clear evidence the chances of obtaining additional resources are reduced, and the chances of using resources to best effect still further reduced. It should be emphasized that research does not necessarily imply costly and lengthy studies.

Often well-designed data collection and analysis can

yield sufficient information as a basis for action without the expenditure of a great deal of money and effort; and the case for action in some directions may be so self-evident that little study is needed in the initial

stages.

However, the results of any action taken should be carefully studied to ensure that resources are being used effectively

to identify particular

successes and obstacles, and to help map out directions for the future. Well-planned pilot studies and experimental systems can, if properly monitored, yield information that is of value well beyond the situations where they are carried out. Planning for the Future While considerable advances can be made quite quickly, major improvements are a long-term objective, and short-term measures should be set within a context of long term planning.

Improvements to collections and services will

inevitably lead to an increase in the level and complexity of demand and systems must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate growth and change. Research should therefore not be confined to an analysis of the existing situation.

It should also take account as far as possible of future

probabilities. Technological advances, while their extent and influence cannot be predicted precisely, will certainly alter present patterns of publishing and supplying material and may radically affect the future availability of publications.

Technology tends to develop its own impetus, and it is

important for political, social and humane reasons that it should be used wisely.

Particular attention must be paid to developing countries, which

already lag far behind industrialized countries in the availability of conventional publications.

Continuing movement towards the electronic

transmission of information may widen this gap still further unless serious attempts are made to provide and maintain the sophisticated

infrastructure

113 needed for the exploitation of computerized services.

However, while new

technology should be used as and when appropriate, it is unlikely to provide instant solutions to long-standing problems.

Conver^tional books and journals

will continue to be published, and for the immediate future they will remain the dominant channels for most recorded literature.

Great though the impact

of electronic technology may eventually be, action is still needed to improve the existing unsatisfactory

situation.

Agents of Action The provision of new services and the improvement of existing ones are ultimately the responsibility of governments and their agencies, individual institutions, professional associations and users. As already noted, in many countries the provision of library and information services is accorded low priority.

This may be due to the

shortage of resources and the more visible need for improvements in other areas such as food production and medical care.

It may also be due in part

to a lack of awareness of the benefits to be derived from improved availability as a support for the development and maintenance of literacy and education, both formal and informal, and as a basis for economic and social development and for the optimum use of resources, to promote innovations and enhance productivity and services.

Advances in food production and medical

care may themselves depend crucially upon information and its proper application. The development of information services is in the interest, and often under the control, of governments, as are other areas, such as the communications system

import controls, currency regulations etc, that have a

direct or indirect bearing on the flow of information in the community. responsibilities of governments are thus of critical importance.

The

Since

government policy directly affects the national provision of library, archive and information services, and budgetary allocations determine the extent and efficiency of services, major progress can result only from a firm commitment by governments to the principle of UAP.

It is their responsibility

to

provide a suitable policy framework as well as adequate financial and organizational support to ensure the translation of policy into effective practical action at all levels.

114 At present many sections of the community have no access to library services, especially in rural areas of developing countries.

Such services

as exist usually operate in and from urban centres, and there is a pressing need to develop rural services. is of particular

The provision of public and school libraries

importance.

However, responsibilities do not lie only with governments.

The

formulation of detailed policy, and especially the translation of policy into action, will fall to information professionals.

It is they who are

ultimately responsible for improvements to availability, and it is vital that they should bring their knowledge and practical experience to bear on the determination of the policies they will have to implement.

It is the

practitioners who are best placed to perceive where problems lie and the remedial action necessary.

It is they who through contact with users can

best assess whether policies and procedures are meeting needs

what needs

remain unmet, and the nature and scope of improvements needed.

Significant

benefits can be secured within individual organizations and institutions at little expense, though co-operation and co-ordination with other institutions and sectors of the information community will also be needed

It is the

responsibility of all information professionals to ensure that users have full knowledge of and the ability to exploit local, national and international resources.

Thus improvements also require a commitment on the

part of information professionals to the concepts of use and availability. Librarians can often do a great deal to promote availability by making their own libraries more attractive and welcoming, by making their stock more accessible and easier to use, by encouraging their staff to be sensitive and responsive to users, and by the removal of all unnecessary

barriers.

If professionals are to be user-orientated they must be trained to motivate users and to help them get the best out of services.

In many

countries the lack of resources means that libraries have to play multiple roles, providing library, documentation, information and archive services. There is therefore a need for training in all these areas.

The introduction

of new technologies will also require education in their understanding and exploitation.

All too often information professionals tend to wait for users

while users expect information to be brought to them.

At the same time as

the community of users is increasing, professionals may still be excessively

115 concerned with technicalities: ends are lost in a preoccupation with means. There is much need to improve the image and status of the information professional through the revision and orientation of library science curricula towards users, and library schools have a very important role to play in UAP in helping lay the foundations for the future. Relevant professional associations may act as a forum for developing and maintaining professional commitment, and can ensure that the needs of a profession as a whole are taken into account.

Individual organizations may

be unable in isolation to obtain the resources needed for improvements to be made.

The corporate voice of professional associations can act as a strong

influence when representations for improved services are made to governments, publishers, the book trade and libraries and other information-related institutions.

Since, as noted above, publishers, booksellers and libraries

exist in a symbiotic relationship, their professional bodies should meet to consider common action that their members can take or that they can combine to press upon governments. It has been stressed that users should be considered as part of the total system.

The development of information services is relevant to all sectors

of society, and services should create new demand as well as satisfying existing demand. of a culture.

The search for and use of information are an integral part

The use of information resources in connection with activities

at work and at home should be learnt as an essential skill in the modern world.

Since over 40Ï of the population in developing countries is under 15,

learning should start at an early stage if maximum benefit is to be derived from this great human potential and its contribution to the future supply of skilled manpower. Conclusion: a Call for Action This book has done little more than describe the concept of UAP, discuss its component elements, consider the needs for improvement and the barriers in the way of improvement, and indicate broad solutions and specific measures that could be taken.

If it publicizes the great need for improved

availability of publications, encourages at least some countries and some of the relevant professions involved to devote attention, study and resources to improvement, suggests ways in which problems might be approached and points

116

out possible courses of action, it will have achieved its immediate purposes. There can be few persons concerned with availability who can do nothing, however small, to further it. It is not too dramatic to claim that the Unesco/IFLA International Congress on UAP has lit a torch for UAP. own torches at the flame.

It is now for others to light their

Unless this happens UAP will remain nothing but a

concept, imaginative and beautiful perhaps, but ultimately of no benefit to mankind.

To repeat what has been stressed more than once in this book, UAP

is intended to be a programme of action.

117

APPENDIX 1 BIBLIOGRAPHY UAP is relevant to very many aspects of librarianship

and a bibliography

that fully covers all these aspects would be very extensive.

This

bibliography has therefore been limited to references directly related to UAP and includes: research projects undertaken within the UAP programme; documents prepared for the Unesco/IFLA International Congress on UAP; published articles, monographs etc, and unpublished papers presented at IFLA's Annual Meetings that make particular reference to UAP.

It is arranged

in three sections: (A)

General Treatment of UAP

(B)

Particular Aspects of UAP

(C)

UAP in Relation to Specific Countries.

Given the multifaceted nature of many of the references, at places cross-references are provided to assist the reader. (A) 1.

General Treatment of UAP BLAZEKOVIC, T.

Univerzalna Dostupnost Publikacija.

Informatologia

Yugoslavica, 11 (3/4), 1979, 1-10. 2.

COURRIER, Y. Publications.

International Congress on the Universal Availability of Unesco Journal of Information Science, Librarianship and

Archives Administration, 4 (1), 1982, 2-7, 74.

118 3.

EVANS, A.

International Congress on Universal Availability of

Publications.

Outlook on Research Libraries.

Special supplement.

Conference reporting service, 1982. 6 8. 4.

GVISHIANI-KOSYGINA, L.A. and VOROTILIN, A.A.

Universal Availability of

Publications: the concept and the programme.

International Forum on

Information and Documentation, 7 (3), 1982, 3-7. II

5.

HAKLI, E. käsille.

UAP eli miten saada kaiken maailman kirjallisuus kaikkien Helsinki: Helsingfors Universitetsbibliotek,

1981.

(Tutkielmia ja Tiedotteita/Skrifter och Meddelanden. 29). 6.

LEOTA, A. 1980,

7.

Univerzalan dostup informacijama.

Informatika, 14 (4),

169-173.

LIEBAERS, H. UAP - a concept and a programme.

IFLA Journal, 4 (2),

1978, 117. 8.

LINE, M.B.

Barriers on the road to Universal Availability of

Publications. 9.

LINE, M.B.

Library Association Record, 80 (11), 1978, 570-571.

IFLA's Universal Availability of Publications

Interlending Review, 7 (1), 1979, 22-23. way ahead.

programme.

Also published as: UAP: the

Focus on International and Comparative Librarianship, 9

(3), 1978, 29-30. 10.

LINE

M.B.

The practical impact of UAP.

Unesco Journal of Information

Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 76-78. 11.

LINE, M.B

Repetindo os argumentos varias veges ate os bibliotecarios

se convencerem.

Boletim ABDF - Nova Serie (Brasilia), 2 (2), 1979,

4-6. 12.

LINE, M.B.

UAP: stage one completed.

Bookseller, (4003), 1982,

1040-1042. 13.

LINE, M.B.

Universal Availability of Publications.

for Libraries, 31, (3), 1977, 142-151.

Unesco Bulletin

119 14.

LINE, M.B.

Universal Availability of Publications, _in Burnett D and

Cumming E E (eds.)

International library and information programmes.

Proceedings of the tenth anniversary conference of the International and Comparative Librarianship Group of the Library Association. Loughborough, September 23-25, 1977.

London, Library Association,

1979, 36-57. 15.

LINE, M.B.

Universal Availability of Publications: progress and

development. 16.

LINE, M.B.

IFLA Journal, 4 (4), 1978, 345-346. Universele Bischikbaarheid van Publikaties - een

IFLA-project. 17-

Open, 12 (7/8), 1980, 356-361.

LINE, M.B. and VICKERS, S.

IFLA's programme of UAP - Universal

Availability of Publications.

International Forum on Information and

Documentation, 7 (3), 1982, 8-9. 18.

LINE, M.B. and VICKERS, S.

Unesco/IFLA International Congress and IFLA

Post-Congress Seminar on Universal Availability of Publications

(UAP).

IFLA Journal, 8 (3), 1982, 339-342. 19.

LINE, M.B. and VICKERS, S.

Users before systems.

Library Association

Record, 84 (10), 1982, 357-358. 20.

RACZ, A.N.

A kiadványok egyetemes hozzáférhetBségének eszméje és

gyakovlati eredményei. 21.

R0ED, J.E. handling.

22.

KOnyvtari FigyelO, 27 (2), 1981, 125-135.

UAP: Universal Adgang til Publikasjoner - ideal og Synopsis, 13 (4-5), 1982,

SGABBATI, G.

129-133.

La Disponibilità Universale delle Publicazioni.

Bolletino d'Informazione-Associazione Italiana Biblioteche, 20 (1/2),

1980, 23-26. 23.

SWIGCHEM, Ρ J. van.

De vraag naar publikaties.

Open, 12 (7/8), 1980,

362-367. 24.

UNESCO/IFLA International Congress on Universal Availability of Publications, Paris, 3-7 May 1982:

120 Main Working Document. and UNISIST, 1982.

Paris: Unesco, General Information Programme

(PGI-82/UAP/2).

Summary of research of the UAP programme.

(Background document No.

1). Paris: Unesco, General Information Programme and UNISIST,

1982.

(PGI-82/UAP/3). Contributions on copyright.

(Background document No. 2) Paris:

Unesco, General Information Programme and UNISIST,

1982.

(PGI-82/UAP/4). Final Report.

Paris: Unesco, General Information Programme and

UNISIST, 1982. 25.

(PGI-82/UAP/6).

UNIVERSAL Availability of Publications, 44th IFLA Congress, Excerpts from conference papers.

1978:

Bulletin - International Association

of Orientalist Librarians, 14, 1978, 5-9. 26.

URQUHART, D.J.

UAP: What can we do about it?

IFLA Journal, 4 (4),

1978, 338-344. 27.

VICKERS, S.

The fundamentals of UAP.

IFLA Journal, 8 (1), 1982,

42-49. 28.

VICKERS, S.

Unesco/IFLA International Congress and Post-Congress

Seminar on Universal Availability of Publications (UAP). Review, 10 (3), 1982, 29.

VICKERS, S.C.J.

Interlending

100-102.

Universal Availability of Publications.

State

Librarian, 26 (1), 1978, 2-3. 30.

WESEMAEL, A.L. van.

UAP: the groundwork.

Focus on International and

Comparative Librarianship, 9 (3), 1978, 27-28.

(B)

Particular Aspects of UAP

Publishing and bookselling 31.

LINE, M.B.

Universal Availability of Publications and the publisher

and bookseller.

Bookseller, (3895), 1980, 668-670.

121 32.

KARTA50V, Ν.S.

The link between publishing and libraries in the Union

of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Unesco Journal of Information Science,

Librarianship and Archives Administration, 4 ( 1 ) , 1982, 4 3 - 1 8 . Acquisition - general 33.

COLLINS, J. and FINER, R.

National acquisition policies and systems: a

comparative study of existing systems and possible models. West Yorkshire : IFLA International Office for UAP, 1982. in : Collins, J. and Finer, R.

National acquisition policies and

systems: an international perspective. 1982,

Wetherby, Summarized

Interlending Review, 10 (4),

111-118.

- exchange 34.

ALLARDYCE, A.

UAP and the exchange of publications.

IFLA Journal, 4

(2), 1978, 122-128. See also: (40). - legal deposit 35.

GAZZOLO DE SANGSTER, M.

Legal deposit and the Universal Availability

of Publications (UAP): the case of Peru.

Unesco Journal of Information

Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 2 (1), 1980, 29-34. Repositories 36.

Capital Planning Information.

National repository plans and

programmes: a comparative study of existing plans and possible models. Wetherby, West Yorkshire: IFLA International Office for UAP, 1982. Summarized in: Kennington, D. and White, B. and programmes.

National repository plans

Interlending Review, 10 (1), 1982, 3-7.

Conservation 37.

BANSA, H.

Konservierung als ein besonderer Aspekt von UAP.

Archives

et Bibliothèques de Belgique, 50 (1-4), 1979, 178-185. Interlending - national 38.

BRIQUET DE LEMOS, A.A.

Descriptions of interlibrary lending in various

countries and a bibliography of interlibrary lending. Yorkshire: IFLA Office for International Lending, 1980.

Wetherby, West

122 39.

HONKO, M.

UAP i Norden: rapport om fjärrlänetrafiken i Danmark,

Finland, Norge og Sverige.

Esbo: NORDINFO, 1982.

(NORDINFO-publikation, no 5).

Summarized in: Sanner, L.-E.

Interlending in the Nordic countries.

Esbo: NORDINFO, [1982],

(To be

published in Nordisk Tidskrift f8r Bok-och Biblioteksväsen). 40.

KANEVSKY, B.P. and SAMOKHINA, N.G.

Cooperation of the National Library

of the USSR with other libraries in the field of interlibrary loan and book exchange within the context of the Universal Availability of Publications programme.

Paper presented at the 46th IFLA General

Conference, Manila, August, 1980.

Available from IFLA Clearing Houses.

See also: (57). 41.

LINE, M.B. and others.

National interlending systems: a comparative

study of existing systems and possible models. Information Programme, 1980. Line, M.B.

LINE, M.B.

Summarized in:

National interlending systems: existing systems and

possible models. 42.

Paris: Unesco, General

(PGI/78/WS/24 (Rev.)).

Interlending Review, 7 (2), 1979, 42-46.

UAP and interlibrary lending.

IFLA Journal, 4 (2), 1978,

118-121. 43.

LINE, M.B.

UAP and patterns of interlending, _in Rickards, J.M. and

Cayless, C.F. (eds.)

Interlending in the 80's.

Proceedings of a

national conference ... University of Queensland, Brisbane, 27-29 August, 1980.

Sydney: Library Association of Australia, 1980, I-I6.

Interlending - international 44.

KEFFORD, B.

International interlibrary lending: a review of the

literature.

Wetherby, West Yorkshire: IFLA Office for International

Lending, 1982. 45.

LINE, M. and others. publications. UNISIST, 1 9 8 1 . M.B.

The international provision and supply of

Paris: Unesco, General Information Programme and (PGI-8I/WS/30).

Part of this is summarized in: Line,

The need for improved worldwide provision of publications.

Unesco Journal of Information Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 4 (1), 1982, 8-17, 75.

123 46.

VICKERS, S.C.J.

Towards a world system of UAP.

43rd IFLA Council Meeting.

Paper presented at the

Brussels, September, 1977.

Available from

IFLA Clearing Houses. Union catalogues 47.

DE GROOT, J.R.

Bischikbaarstelling in de toekomst.

Open, 12 (7/8),

1980, 382-386. 48.

KILGOUR, F.G.

Increased UAP effected by an on-line union catalogue.

Interlending Review, 7 (1), 1979, 20-22. Types of library - national libraries 49.

KALAJDZIEVA, K.

UAP and its relevance to national libraries.

IFLA

Journal, 4 (2), 1978, 140-145. See also: (40), (55), (56), (86), (92), (93). - university libraries 50.

ALMADA DE ASCENCI0, M. in Mexico.

Relevance of UAP in a university library system

Unesco Journal of Information Science, Librarianship and

Archives Administration, 4 (1), 1982, 31-37, 75. •

51.

LAW, D.G.

UAP and decentralized university library systems.

Paper

presented at the 46th IFLA General Conference, Manila, August 1980. Available from IFLA Clearing Houses. 52.

POON, P.W.T. on UAP.

The effect of decentralized university library services

Paper presented at the 46th IFLA General Conference, Manila,

August 1980.

Available from IFLA Clearing Houses.

- public libraries 53.

RUGAAS, B.

Hoe bereikt de bibliotheek de hele gemeenschap?

Bibliotheek en Sammenleving, 7 (4), 1979, 111-117. 54.

SWIGCHEM, P.J. van. public.

UAP a task for libraries serving the general

IFLA Journal, 4 (2), 1978, 155-157.

See also: (65).

124

- science and technology libraries 55.

KHARINA, I.M.

Universal Availability of Publications - a basis of

HPLST activity.

Arlington, Va: Educational Resources Information

Center, (ED 186 008). 56.

M0R0Z0V, A.N.

The availability of the collections of the All-Union

Patent Technical Library.

Paper presented at the 44th IFLA Council

Meeting, Strbske Pleso, August-September 1978.

Available from IFLA

Clearing Houses. 57.

PERC, C. and KUSTRIN-CEMAZAR, M.

Prispevek Universalni Dostopnosti

Publikaij s pomosjo raedknjiznicne isposoje.

Nova Proizvodnja, (30),

1979, 169-170. - parliamentary libraries 58.

SPICER, E.J.

(JAP and parliamentary libraries.

IFLA Journal, 4 (2),

1978, 151-154.

Types of material - official publications 59.

HONORE, S.

Le réseau UAP et les publications officielles.

IFLA

Journal, 4 (2), 1978, 134-139. - rare and precious books 60.

WILLISON, I.

The relevance of UAP to rare and precious books.

IFLA

Journal, 4 (2), 1978, 158-165. - study material 61.

ELDERINK, L.M. Studiematerial.

Een onderzoek aar de beschikbaarheid van Open, 12 (7/8), 1980, 375-381.

- grey literature 62.

VICKERS, S.

Grey literature worldwide: the UAP programme.

Proceedings, 34 (11/12), 1982, 498-505.

version appears as: Vickers, S. and Wood, D.N. availability of grey literature. 125-130.

Aslib

A revised and augmented Improving the

Interlending Review, 10 (4), 1982,

125 patents

See: (56).

63.

KOLTYPINA, G.B.

Universal availability of printed music in the USSR.

Paper presented at the 41th IFLA Council Meeting, Strbske Pleso, August-September 1978. 64.

REED, T.

Available from IFLA Clearing Houses.

Universal Availability of Publications and Music.

Fontes

Artis Musicae, 29 (1-2), 1982, 79-82. - non-book materials 65.

PINION, C.F.

Local cooperation in the use and availability of non-book

materials, with special reference to certain schemes relating to public libraries in the UK.

Paper presented at the 44th IFLA Council Meeting,

Strbske Pleso, August-September 1978.

Available from IFLA Clearing

Houses. Research needs 66.

HARBO, 0.

Universal Availability of Publications and library research.

Paper presented at the 44th IFLA Council Meeting, Strbske Pleso, August-September 1978. 67.

LINE, M.B.

Available from IFLA Clearing Houses.

Researching into the availability of publications.

Library

Quarterly, 53(3), July 1983. 68.

TREZZA, A.F.

Data needs for support of Universal Availability of

Publications.

Paper presented at the 44th IFLA Council meeting,

Strbske Pleso, August-September 1978. Houses.

Available from IFLA Clearing

126 Library education 69.

NYARKO, Κ.

Universal Availability of Publications and library

education in Africa.

Paper presented at the 44th IFLA Council Meeting,

Strbske Pleso, August-September 1978.

Available from IFLA Clearing

Houses. 70.

TUILIER, A.

L'importance de la formation scientifique du

bibliothécaire dans l'accès universel aux documents.

Paper presented

at the 44 th IFLA Council Meeting, Strbske Pleso, August-September

1978.

Available from IFLA Clearing Houses. Hew technology 71.

MARTYN, J.

UAP and the new information technologies.

Unesco Journal

of Information Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 4 (1), 1982, 38-42. UAP and UBC 72.

CLARKE, T.C.

Knowing your universals: UAP in relation to UBC.

IFLA

Journal, 4 (2), 1978, 129-13373-

RENAUD-FRIGON, C.

La Disponibilité Universelle des Publications: un

nouveau programme de coopération international prolongeant le contrôle bibliographique universel.

Documentation et Bibliothèques, 25 (1),

1979, 33-41. Developing countries 74.

LINE, M.B.

Universal Availability of Publications and developing

countries, _in, Vervliet, H D L (ed.) developing countries.

Resource sharing of libraries in

Proceedings of the IFLA/Unesco presession

seminar for libraries from developing countries. September 4, 1977.

Antwerp, August 30 -

Munich: Κ G Saur, 1979, 162-169.

(IFLA

Publications No. 14). 75.

RODRIQUEZ GALLARDO, A.

La Disponsibilidad Universal de las

Publicaciones en los países en vías de desarrollo. Archivos, 8, 1977, 73-80.

Bibliotecas y

Substantially the same text was published in

English as: Universal Availability of Publications and developing countries.

Interlending Review, 6 (3), 1978, 90-92.

127 76.

SOOSAI, J.S.

UAP: a third world perspective.

IFLA Journal, 4 (2),

1978, 146-150.

(C)

UAP in Relation to Specific Countries A number of the works cited above include descriptions of activities in a range of countries.

See references: (33), (36), (38), (39), (44).

The following also treat more than one country. Eastern Europe 77.

UNIVERSAL Availability of Publications in the socialist countries. Moscow: State Lenin Library of the USSR, 1981.

South East Asia 78.

WIJASURIYA, D.E.K. systems.

UAP and the development of national information

Unesco Journal of Information Science, Librarianship and

Archives Administration, 4 (1), 1982, 18-23. Individual Countries Brazil 79.

BRIQUET DE LEMOS, A.A.

UAP and Brazil.

Unesco Journal of Information

Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 78-81. Bulgaria 80.

ESHKOFF, K. Bulgarien.

81.

POPOV, V.

Literaturinformation und UAP: die Praxis in der VR Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, 95 (4), 1981, 150-155. UAP and Bulgaria.

Unesco Journal of Information Science,

Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 81-84. France 82.

CHAUVEINC, M.

UAP and France.

Unesco Journal of Information Science,

Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 84-88.

128 German Democratic Republic 83.

GENZEL, P.

UAP and the German Democratic Republic.

Unesco Journal of

Information Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 89-92. Ghana 84.

DeHEER, A.N.

Ghana and UAP: obstacles and prospects.

Unesco Journal

of Information Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 4 (1), 1982, 24-30, 75. Hungary 85.

RACZ, A.N.

UAP és a magyar kBnyvtárak.

Tajekoztatas, 28 (1), 1981, 1-8.

Tudomanyos e3 Mtlszaki

A revised version appears in English

as: Universal Availability of Publications in Hungarian libraries. Interlending Review, 9 (3), 181, 88-92. Japan 86.

TANAKA, A.

UAP and the National Diet Library.

National Diet Library

Newsletter, (57), 1980, 1-6. Malaysia 87.

LIM HUCK TEE.

UAP and Malaysia.

Unesco Journal of Information

Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 92-95. Mexico.

See: (50)

Netherlands 88.

HULSHOFF, M.A.

UAP: the interaction between library and community;

some experiences in The Netherlands.

Paper presented at the 44th IFLA

Council Meeting, Strbske Pleso, August-September 1978.

Available from

IFLA Clearing Houses. 89.

K00PS, W.R.H.

See also: (47), (61).

UAP in Nederland.

Open, 12 (7/8), 1980, 368-374.

129 Nigeria 90.

AYALOGU, W.U.

Universal Availability of Publications (UAP) in Nigeria.

H.A. Thesis.

Loughborough

GRANHEIM, E.

UAP and Norway.

University

of Technology, 1982.

Norway 91.

Unesco Journal of Information Science,

Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 96-99. Peru.

See: (35).

Poland 92.

STANKIEWICZ, W.

The National Library of Poland and its role in the

realization of the UAP program in Poland.

Paper presented at the 45th

IFLA Council Meeting, Copenhagen, August-September 1979.

Available

from IFLA Clearing Houses. USSR 93.

KARTASHOV, N.S.

Role of the State Lenin Library of the USSR in the

realization of UAP programme in the USSR.

Paper presented at the 47th

IFLA General Conference and Council, Leipzig, August, 1981.

Available

from IFLA Clearing Houses. See also: (32), (10), (55), (56), (63). United Kingdom 94.

LINE, M.B.

UAP and the United Kingdom.

Unesco Journal of Information

Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 99-101.

95.

URQUHART, D.J.

Some aspects of UAP in a developed country.

Paper

presented at the 43rd IFLA Council Meeting, Brussels, September 1977. Available from IFLA Clearing Houses. See also: (65).

130 USA 96.

DOUGHERTY, Ü.M.

UAP and the United States.

Unesco Journal of

Information Science, Librarianship and Archives Administration, 1 (2), 1979, 102-103. See also: (48). Yugoslavia.

See: (57).

131

APPENDIX 2

RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED AT THE UNESCO/IFLA INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON UNIVERSAL AVAILABILITY OF PUBLICATIONS, PARIS, 3-7 MAY 1982 (A)

General recommendations requiring joint action at national or international level by governments, professionals and international organizations.

1.

Information personnel should consider information resources entrusted to their care as part of the total national resource and, in the case of materials that are rare, unique or difficult to obtain, as part of the total global resource, and be conscious of their responsibility to users of publications and information.

2.

Information personnel should examine ways of promoting use of information resources and services and carry out research to develop improved methods and techniques for evaluating reading and information habits which will take into account the abilities and interests of users and potential users.

3.

Continuing research should be undertaken on the information needs of users in different disciplines and at different academic levels.

4.

Efforts should be made to assist users in the identification of their information needs and to encourage them to express them and direct them to appropriate channels, such as libraries and information services. Research and experiment should be conducted to discover the best means of achieving this.

132 5.

Further efforts should be made to devise and develop techniques of educating and assisting users in the use of information systems and libraries.

6.

The education of information users should be integrated into formal education programmes at all levels, from primary education upwards. Information, and where necessary training, should be available to all users on the various possibilities of access to publications and information, and how they could be exploited.

7.

The professional education and continuing education of information personnel should be aimed at improving availability in response to needs and in developing the skills necessary to achieve this.

8.

Special attention should be paid to the particular needs of the disabled and available technologies should be utilized, wherever possible, to overcome the physical obstacles faced by them in their quest for access to information.

Further, special attention should also be paid to the

particular needs of those whose reading difficulties stem from other reasons than physical or mental handicaps, eg the reading and language retarded and the weak readers (including those unaccustomed to reading). 9.

As the use of electronic storage and transmission of texts develops, efforts should be made to ensure that it is used to improve and extend access and availability with due regard to provisions of copyright, and to the importance of capturing information published in this way at intervals in order to maintain a historical record and towards ensuring the permanent preservation of such texts for present and future generations.

10.

In view of the importance of the programme for Universal

Bibliographic

Control (UBC) and its complementarily with the UAP Programme, the implementation of the recommendations adopted by the International Congress on National Bibliographies in 1977 relating in general to national and universal bibliographic control and in particular to the creation of national bibliographies, the establishment of national bibliographic agencies, legal deposit and the publications of intergovernmental and international non-governmental should continue to receive all necessary support.

organizations,

133 11.

Publications in minority languages should be encouraged, collected and made available.

12.

National repository plans should provide at least for the retention of all domestic publications for subsequent supply by loan or photocopy, within existing copyright legislation.

13.

Consideration should be given in repository plans to ensuring the distribution of duplicates to interested parties within the country and to other countries.

A study should be made for devising the most

effective and economic way of distributing duplicate material within and between countries. 14.

Repository plans should take into account the need to ensure the conservation of the physical items to be retained either in original form or alternatively by the use of such methods as miniaturization and digitization.

15.

As the conservation and preservation of publications, printed and otherwise, have a major impact on the improvement of availability, and in view of the serious problems of physical deterioration of information-bearing materials due to atmospheric, chemical, human or other factors, a major plan of action should be established in the following areas related to this subject: (a)

that Member States undertake national programmes of research and development and international co-operation in the conservation and preservation of information materials;

(b)

that methods of preservation in formats other than the original be studied and evaluated and applied wherever necessary;

(c)

that the published results of such research and studies be incorporated in a data base or other bibliographic record;

(d)

that assistance for the training of specialists in conservation and preservation be made available to Member States;

131

(e)

that progress in the areas of conservation and preservation and in the evolution of new technologies in these fields be discussed regularly by an expert group set up by Unesco in collaboration with relevant international organizations.

16.

The experience and success of existing regional and other international co-operative interlending schemes should be evaluated, with a view to identifying the likely value and most appropriate nature of such schemes in future.

17.

In cases where librarians are held personally responsible for the holdings of which they have the custody, they should be released from this responsibility in case of loss of, or damage to, publications which occurs on the occasion of interlending, or of the illicit use of the publication by the beneficiary of the loan.

18.

Countries that have or create central collections for national interlending provision should consider how far these can be used also as sources of international supply.

19.

In individual countries, libraries, publishers, booksellers and others concerned with the availability of publications should consider establishing mechanisms for promoting UAP in order to identify barriers and problems, develop plans and solutions, encourage and stimulate action by governments and other relevant agencies, and monitor progress.

20.

Intergovernmental organizations, in particular United Nations agencies should make all efforts to improve the quality of production, bibliographic control, distribution, access, availability and use of their documents and publications.

(B)

Recommendations addressed to Member States requiring action at national and international levels.

21.

In order to provide a sound basis which would ensure access and availability to publications for all categories of users it is recommended that national planning of library and information services based on the needs of users of information be undertaken in all Member States where this is not already being done.

22.

Member States should agree to regard the unrestricted availability of publications as a genuine public service and take necessary measures to ensure that the service is provided in conditions that allow for the utmost speed and the lowest possible costs.

23.

In order to achieve the greatest possible access to information and publications, access points should be as extensive and widely distributed as possible.

They could range from major collections of

publications through branch libraries to service and inquiry points. 24.

Confidential labels attached to documents seriously restrict their availability.

Member States are advised to establish procedures for

periodic review and the removal of items from the confidential lists when appropriate. 25.

Governments and the appropriate intergovernmental bodies should give consideration to the removal of barriers which inhibit or restrict access to published materials in various physical forms, for example: import and export licences; high tariffs for postage and telecommunication; customs and excise duties; inadequate amounts of hard currency for acquisition.

26.

Governments and other agencies, national and international, should examine the problems of non-conventional publications produced by them, in particular, certain categories of official publications, 'grey literature', information produced in electronic forms and audio-visual materials; and take steps to ensure effective bibliographic control of these materials and their availability.

27.

In view of their important role in social, economic and educational development as well as in scientific and technological research, Member States should support and finance the development of libraries as a high priority, either directly or with the help of external resources from the World Bank or other development banks, UNDP, Unesco, bilateral assistance organizations, etc.

Member States should ensure the adequate

funding of libraries which should keep pace with the development of scientific and other scholarly research and of the publishing of its results.

Appropriate measures should be taken to enable the

pre-payments of periodical subscriptions.

136 28.

Considering that a national acquisitions policy is an effective means of ensuring an appropriate level of availability of local and foreign publications, Member States are urged to: (a)

examine, where national acquisitions policies exist, the levels and methods of provision presently attained and practised, and take steps necessary to ensure their suitability to meet expected future requirements and maintain effective levels of provision;

(b)

take urgent steps, where no acquisitions policies exist, for the design and implementation of such policies as a means of improving availability;

(c)

ensure that national acquisition policies are closely connected with national interlending systems and national repository systems.

29.

Subregional or regional policies should be drawn up, where feasible, in which several Member States, by mutual agreement, undertake planned acquisitions programmes for the benefit of all parties to the agreement.

30.

Member States should ensure that, where practicable, publications issued in other countries which concern their own country and its nationals, and publications by its nationals, be acquired by the national library where one exists or other appropriate libraries in the form of primary documents or in another form (microfilms, facsimile reproduction, etc.).

31.

Member States should give consideration to the establishment of policies to ensure the retention of publications withdrawn from libraries, documentation centres and similar institutions and their continued availability both to national users and those of other countries and ensure that such policies and systems are related to national acquisitions systems and national interlending systems.

32.

Member States should undertake production or reproduction in microform or digitized form of the past and current output of their government publications.

33.

Member States with national interlending policies or systems should examine existing provisions in terms of the proportion of requests satisfied, speed of supply and costs, and consider their suitability to meet present and future requirements.

34.

Member States which have no national interlending policies should consider their establishment as one of the essential means of improving availability.

Pilot projects should be set up with international and

other assistance for the establishment of national interlending

systems

which would serve as models for others. 35.

Each Member State should aim to make its domestic publications available to other countries as well as to its own citizens, either by loan or, within existing copyright legislation, as reprographic copies.

36.

Each Member State should identify or establish a national centre or centres, possibly attached to existing institutions, to monitor outgoing and incoming international requests and to collect statistics of international lending.

Such centres, where appropriate to the national

situation, may also act as channels for outgoing and incoming requests. They should also be given a role in the planning, development and supervision of national and international interlending systems. 37.

In order to facilitate international lending it is recommended that IFLA's principles and guidelines for international lending are used.

(C)

Recommendations addressed specifically to Unesco and IFLA requiring action singly or jointly in connection with UAP.

38.

Unesco should undertake a study regarding problems relating to national inprints of recently independent Member States now found only in libraries and other institutions outside the countries of their origin. Meanwhile, Unesco should, within its programmes of assistance to Member States, assist in the identification and location of such materials as a priority action in the context of UBC and UAP.

39.

A pilot project should be established in a Member State with Unesco assistance, to design and establish a national acquisitions policy and system as a model for possible application in other countries.

40.

Unesco should urge Member States which have not yet ratified the Unesco conventions on the exchange of publications and the exchange of government publications to do so and set up appropriate mechanisms for the implementation of these conventions such as clearing-houses for the exchange of publications.

138 11.

Unesco should encourage researchers to deposit copies of reports and publications arising out of research in developing countries with the national or central library of the country in which the research took place.

12.

Unesco and IFLA should sponsor a study on the feasibility of establishing a microfilm bank for the provision of required copies of documents and publications.

13.

Unesco, IFLA and other relevant organizations should undertake or compile case-studies to provide qualitative and quantitative data relevant to the availability of publications.

11.

Unesco in co-operation with IFLA should assist countries in the planning and implementation of national library and information services by helping to determine goals and prepare guidelines, by providing expertise and by indicating possible alternatives.

15.

Where conditions are appropriate, feasibility studies should be undertaken, with the support of Unesco and other relevant organizations, of the possibility of developing regional (multinational) interlending policies and systems.

16.

Unesco and IFLA should continue to support relevant research, and devise appropriate means for monitoring the effectiveness of the UAP Programme.

17.

Unesco and IFLA should continue to support UAP: (a)

by making it better known through the dissemination of research findings and through publications;

(b)

by organizing regional and national meetings designed to seek solutions applicable at these levels and by promoting their implementation ;

(c)

by endeavouring to promote the compatibility of developments in different countries;

(d)

by recognizing the important role of the world's great research libraries in preserving and supplying the vast resources and collection as part of ensuring the permanent availability of publications.

139

(D)

Recommendations addressed to the World Book Congress

18.

The congress recommended that the following recommendations be transmitted to the World Book Congress: (i)

that a high priority be attached by governments to the development of indigenous publishing, especially in native and minority languages, to promote literacy and education and to spread information;

(ii)

that publishers, retailers and librarians where necessary establish or improve professional associations, to provide an adequate infrastructure for the development of publishing and the supply of publications; these bodies should co-operate to ensure co-ordinated development in matters of common concern;

(iii)

that educational and training programmes be devised by relevant professional associations for publishers and retailers, in particular to help retailers to become more efficient;

(iv)

that direct financial support be given by government in appropriate countries to the publishers of children's and educational books as well as scientific books;

(v)

that more efforts be made locally, possibly with the initial support of governments, to produce paper and other basic materials required for publishing at internationally competitive prices and quality, by developing technologies and machinery to make use of locally available raw materials with appropriate attention to the durable quality of the product;

(vi)

that the role of National Book Development Councils and their equivalents as effective agents of action be evaluated.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Series I FLA Publications Edited by Willem R. H. Koops 8 World Directory of Map Libraries. Compiled by the Section of Geography and Map Libraries. Edited by John A . Wolter and David K. Carrington. New edition. 1983. A p p r o x . 350 pages. Bound approx. DM 48.00, I F L A members approx. DM 36.00. ISBN 3-598-20374-8 9 Standards for Public Libraries. Prepared by the I F L A Section of Public Libraries. 1977. 2nd corrected edition, 53 pages. Bound DM 16.80, I F L A members DM 12.60. ISBN 3-7940-4429-0 10 IFLA's First Fifty Years. Achievement and challenge in international librarianship. Edited by Willem R. H. Koops and Joachim Wieder. 1977. 158 pages. Bound. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-7940-4430-4 11 The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions: A selected list of references. Edited by Edward P. Cambio. 1977. 2nd revised and expanded edition. V I , 51 pages. DM 16.80, I F L A members DM 12.60. ISBN 3-7940-4431-2 12 Library Service to Children: An International Survey. Edited f o r the Section of Children's Libraries by Colin Ray. New edition. 1983. A p p r o x . 158 pages. A p p r o x . DM 36.00, I F L A members approx. DM 27.00. ISBN 3-7940-4432-0 13 Allardyce, Alex: Letters for the International Exchange of Publications. A guide t o their composition in English, French, German, Russian, Spanish. Edited by Peter Genzel. 1978. 148 pages. Bound. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-7940-4433-9 14 Resource Sharing of Libraries in Developing Countries. Proceedings of the 1977 I F L A / U N E S C O pre-session seminar for librarians f r o m developing countries, A n t w e r p University, August 3 0 - S e p t e m b e r 4 , 1 9 7 7 . Edited by H. D. L. Vervliet. 1979. 286 pages. Bound. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-598-20375-6 15 Libraries for All / Bibliothèques pour tous. A World of Books and their Readers / Le monde du livre et de ses lecteurs. Papers presented at the I F L A 5 0 t h Anniversary World Congress, Brussels 1977. Edited by Robert Vosperand Willem R. H. Koops. 1980. 163 pages. Bound. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-598-20376-4 16 Library Service for the Blind and Physically Hatidicapped: An International Approach. Key Papers presented at the I F L A Conference, Strbské Pleso, CSSR. 1978. Edited by Frank K u r t Cylke. 1979. 106 pages. Bound. DM 30.00, I F L A members DM 22.50. ISBN 3-598-20377-2 17 Guide to the Availability of Theses. Compiled by the Section of University Libraries and other General Research Libraries. Edited by D. H. Borchardt and J. D . T h a w l e y . 1981. 443 pages. Bound. DM 68.00, I F L A members DM 51.00. ISBN 3-598-20378-0 18 Studies on the International Exchange of Publications. Edited by P. Genzel. 1981. 125 pages. Bound. DM 32.00, I F L A members DM 24.00. ISBN 3-598-20379-9 19 Public Library Policy. Proceedings of the I F L A / U N E S C C pre-session Seminar, Lund, Sweden August, 2 0 - 2 4 , 1979. Edited by K . C . Harrison. 1981. 152 pages. Bound. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-598-20380-2 20 Library Education Programmes in Developing Countries with Special Reference to Asia. Proceedings of the Unesco/IFLA Pre-Conference Seminar, Manila, Philippines, 1 5 - 1 9 August 1980. Edited b y Russell Bowden. 1982. 211 pages. Bound. DM 68.00, I F L A members DM 58.00. ISBN 3-598-20387-7 21 Françoise Hébert and Wanda Noël: Copyright and Library Materials for the Handicapped. A study prepared for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. 1982. 111 pages. Bound. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-598-20381-0 22 Education of School Librarians for Central America and Panama: Some Alternatives. Papers presented at the Unesco/IFLA Seminar, San José, Costa Rica, 3—8 December 1978. Edited and translated by Sigrun Klara Hannesdóttir. 1982. I V , 122 pages. Bound. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-598-20384-5 23 Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped: An international Approach. V o l . 2. Edited by Bruce E. Massis. 1982. 123 pages. Bound. DM 32.00, I F L A members DM 24.00. ISBN 3-598-20385-3 24 Library Interior Layout and Design. Proceedings of the Seminar held in Frederiksdal, Denmark, June 1 6 - 2 0 , 1980. Edited by Rolf F u h l r o t t and Michael Dewe. 1982. 135 pages. Bound. DM 64.00, I F L A members DM 48.00. ISBN 3-598-20386-1

Κ • G • SAUR

München • New York • London · Paris

POB 71 10 09 - D - 8 0 0 0 München 71 - Tel. (089) 79 89 01 - Telex 5212067 saur d