National Resource Sharing Working Group

Terms of Reference

It is envisaged that this group will have an ongoing role to monitor interlibrary lending standards, practices and policies and to ensure that these continue to meet changing user needs and new technologies.

  1. Extend the current Australian Interlending Code through development of performance standards aimed at improving the efficiency, reliability and client satisfaction of Inter Library Loans (ILL) operations in Australian libraries.

  2. Co-ordinate a consultative process with the Australian library community (interlibrary lending practitioners & library managers) and user groups to reach consensus on these standards.

  3. Develop strategies to encourage Australian libraries to implement performance standards. These strategies will include areas such as training & competencies for interlibrary lending staff.

  4. Conduct a wide-ranging survey of Australian libraries to ascertain document delivery trends and current interlibrary lending practices in Australia.

  5. Ensure that Australian requirements are reflected in the developments of the ISO interlibrary lending Protocol (the international standard for interlibrary lending communication) by monitoring and providing input through IT 19 to the ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG) convened by the Association of Research Libraries.

  6. Cooperate with international efforts to improve interlibrary lending between countries and recommend improved processes for international interlibrary lending of monographs not held in Australian libraries.

  7. Identify and recommend mechanisms which improve access to interlibrary lending services by end users.

  8. Develop a standard survey/evaluation instrument to measure client satisfaction with interlending services and promote its use by Australian libraries.

  9. Develop criteria for defining best practices for interlibrary lending operations and identify best practice interlibrary lending operations for libraries for benchmarking.

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