Library-Subsidized Unmediated Document Delivery

Abstract

Throughout the 1990s, libraries experimented with subsidizing end-user unmediated document delivery as a means of expanding collections, offering faster service, and lessening demands on interlibrary loan. An ongoing project at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is presented here to evaluate whether or not providing the service met expectations. For the most part, unmediated document delivery served to enhance collections and users appreciated the service. Since those who preferred to order articles themselves were not necessarily interlibrary loan users, workloads and costs associated with interlibrary loan were not diminished.