doi:10.7191/jeslib.2012.101

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Purpose: The paper describes the complex landscape of mass digitization projects and their impact on interlending and document supply. The amount of library material available online is staggering, but still at very early stages in terms of discovery tools. Without a centralized source to search digitized collections from these projects, it is important to understand their goals and distinctions between the services they provide.Design: The paper analyzes the history, goals and achievements of the mass digitization projects. It also looks at the sites that aggregate digitized materials from these projects and their interfaces for providing access. Findings:The amount of library collections now digitized has reached numbers unimaginable even just a few years ago. The impact on interlending and document supply will likely be limited in the near term, since much of interlibrary borrowing is for materials published in the past decade, and much of the digitized content from this period is restricted in Google Book Search, the only mass digitization project to undertake digital conversion of copyrighted material. End users will be able to discover materials of interest in new ways, but are likely to need or want to see the print source for recent publications. Practical implications:Library staff members need to understand these projects and how they differ from one another in order to provide optimal service to their readers.What is original/value of paper: The paper is a guide to negotiating the landscape of mass digitization, with an overview of the projects and their goals and accomplishments, with analysis of the impact on interlending and document supply. IntroductionThe number of books and journals digitized in the past few years and now available online has grown exponentially, with corporations such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and of course Google, funding projects to digitize hundreds of thousands, even millions, of volumes. The idea of having millions of digitized books online was unthinkable even 7-8 years ago, yet that has happened and the amount of digitized materials will continue to grow as a result of these mass digitization projects. The impact of these projects on libraries and interlending and document supply (ILDS) is still very unclear, although

The Library Electronic Text Resource Service (LETRS) at Indiana University began in 1992. LETRS combines a facility with an online service. Staff have tried many different ways to raise awareness of an build support for both parts of LETRS, with varying degrees of success. The most successful publicity efforts were based on an understanding of how humanists conduct research.

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