Discusses the importance of standards in interlending. Describes some attempts to improve access to publications. Highlights ventures in commercial document delivery and also conflicts between electronic publishing and copyright. Gives details of interlending activities in the audiovisual field and at a national level. Summarizes some surveys on interlending. Describes developments in academic libraries as well as views on resource sharing, advances in electronic document delivery and networking, along with forecasts for the future.

National developmentsSaudi Arabia "realised at a very early stage the importance of information in its national development" and moreover it based its policies on the latest technological developments (Basager, 1995). Basager describes various electronic information services in some of the kingdom's largest libraries. In Russia, however, Shraiberg (1996) highlights the lack of a telecommunications infrastructure, which is impairing the advance of computer technology in libraries. However, six Moscow libraries have formed the LIBNET project and a "modern network infrastructure for the information business in Russia" will be established. Wijasuriya (1995) looks at the resource-sharing scene in Asia and Oceania.His concern is about dependence on international assistance. While recognizing that international aid has got schemes started and or kept them afloat, he believes there should be more national commitment to keep these schemes going and "the perpetuation of a dependence syndrome needs to be avoided". He argues for national policies and the national allocation of resources to establish and develop national information infrastructures. Horton (1996) defends the major changes which the National Library of Australia has made in its collection policy recently. The library no longer extensively collects material from overseas because other libraries in the country are already collecting much of this material and it is so easily available through document supply. Instead the library concentrates on the Australian collections, which it sees as its main responsibility in conjunction with building its Asian and Pacific collections and providing access to global information. Directories, handbooks and proceedingsNew editions of various tools which help the interlibrary loans (ILL) librarian have recently been published. One such directory (Morris, 1995) details the interlibrary loan charges and policies of US libraries while another (Barwick and Connolly, 1996) attempts to do a similar job on a world-wide basis. The nature of such directories is that they are out of date as soon as they are published and have to be constantly updated. Boucher's handbook (Boucher, 1997) describes procedures for implementing sound ULLs loans policies and it can be used as a training manual for 126

Discusses organisation, automation and performance measurement aspects of interlibrary loan department management, and developments in charging for and the preservation of ILL items. Highlights the problems of ILL in developing countries, and changes and developments in the rest of the world. Considers electronic document delivery systems, the effect of technological advances on libraries and the “Burgundy effect”.

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