The following report is the result, in part, of a question referred to
the Committee on Co-ordination by a meeting at the Pasadena conference.
The question was, Whether libraries are justified in making a moderate
charge in connection with every volume lent, sufficient in the long
run, to cover the administrative expense involved in looking up and
sending the volume asked for: not as payment for the use of the book,
but to relieve the lender of an undue burden of expense, unavoidably
attendant upon the system of lending with some freedom to other
libraries.
In the opinion of the committee this question could be most profitably
discussed only in connection with the whole subject of inter-library
loans. It is clear, both from past and present developments, and from
the direction these developments are taking that inter-library loans
are, as yet, merely in their infancy. It is clear, too, that such
loans increase the efficiency of libraries which participate in them.
Finally, it is evident that there is a marked tendency not simply
to multiply library loans, but to enlarge the field within which it
is considered appropriate to effect them--taking "field" both in a
geographical sense, and as relating to different classes of borrowers.
Accordingly, it is not surprising that additional machinery and new
methods should be required, and that some at least, should already have
been devised. Also, it is safe to predict that this growth in machinery
and in methods will continue.
Therefore, the Committee on Co-ordination has thought that it might
be helpful, at the present time, to attempt a discussion (which will
partake of the character of a symposium) in regard to the purpose and
scope of inter-library loans. It is hoped that, as a result of this
and subsequent discussion, it may become practicable to formulate some
general rules for the conduct of inter-library loans. If a code of such
rules could be framed, even granting that the provisions would, of
course, bind no library against its will, one more step would yet have
been taken in the direction of systematizing and extending a process
which has already produced excellent results, and bids fair in the near
future, to modify library practice in important particulars.
While the purpose of inter-library loans is uniform in the main, it
varies to some extent, with the nature and duties of the participating
libraries.
Neglecting minor differences, such libraries fall into two groups:
Reference libraries, including libraries of colleges and universities;
and libraries whose work is of a more popular character; or, to state
the matter in terms of readers: Libraries, most of whose readers are
"serious," and libraries, some, at least, of whose readers are not so
very serious.
This distinction is not a sharp one, yet it produces wide divergence
in the point of view, and in the practice of these two classes of
libraries. A comparison of the third contribution to this symposium
with the first and second will make this matter evident. Both points
of view are accurate, and varieties of practice, provided only that
they exist among the members of a comprehensive system, are the best
guarantees of the ultimate achievement of great results.