How “free” we
are:
survey of the
Italian policy in
the document
supply service
Rosalia FERRARA - Donatella GENTILI - Vittorio PONZANI
Istituto Superiore di Sanità -
Library, Rome (Italy)
X EAHIL Conference: Cluj-Napoca, September 15th 2006
INTRODUCTION
Over the past ten years the information landscape
has witnessed considerable changes, accompanied by
the emergence of a new set of challenges…
Internet
enables users to search
autonomously
for
information and even, in
some cases, to gain
immediate access to the
full-text of relevant
articles
OA movement
is leading to major changes
in the approach of publishers
to
the
distribution
of
information and is opening up
new frontiers to researchers
in their quest for access to
documents
As a consequence the library services have also been
affected by developments in digital technology and
the Internet…
Notwithstanding this the document delivery service
(DDS) has preserved its role, because large volumes
of documents are not freely available online
There is lively debate on the controversial issue of
whether or not this service should be paid for…
The scope of this study
is to analyse the Italian situation and to evaluate the
policies - free or fee-based – that biomedical
libraries are pursuing in the provision of the DDS
Contents
 The Italian context
 The survey
 DD at ISS Library
THE ITALIAN CONTEXT
Italy has no consolidated tradition of cooperation in
the library and document delivery spheres. Italian
programmes for coordination in these areas are
varied and the panorama is somewhat segmented…
Union
catalogues
Consortia
DD coopeartive
initiatives
THE ITALIAN CONTEXT
Union calalogues
Since the ‘70s the first projects of national union
catalogues were launched and the main union
catalogues currently used in Italy are the following:
SBN
ACNP
Union catalogue of Italian
libraries that have joined the
National Library Service
Italian union catalogue of serials,
which collects data on the holdings
and services of Italian libraries
SBBL
GIDIF,RBM
Library
system
of
Lombardia Region in
biomedical field
the
the
Union catalogue of the Italian
Group of documentalists of the
pharmaceutical industry
THE ITALIAN CONTEXT
Consortia
In Italy there are three main consortia covering
different geographical areas:
CILEA
CIPE
Northern Italian library
consortium
Central-Northeastern Italian
library consortium
1974 – 10 Lombardy universities
1999 – 12 universities
CIBER/CASPUR
Central-Southern Italian library consortium
1999 – 27 universities
A project is under way to bring representatives from
each consortium together in a nation-wide coordinating
committee
THE ITALIAN CONTEXT
DD cooperative initiatives
At the end of the ‘90s two new library networks
were launched - in cooperation with the ACNP
catalogue - with the specific aim of promoting and
improving the document supply service among
participant libraries at the national level:
NILDE
BIBLIOSAN
Network InterLibrary
Document Exchanging
Cooperative network of 55
libraries of biomedical research
institutes aimed to integrate the
information resources of the
participating
institutes.
BIBLIOSAN libraries join ACNP
catalogue and NILDE network
Web-based document delivery
system aimed to promote
cooperation
among
Italian
libraries for improving DDS
THE SURVEY
Sources
The analysis was carried out on the basis of the union
catalogue of serials ACNP, the major resource for
biomedical libraries in the identification and location
of documents as well as in the acquisition of
information about library holdings and services
Whenever the ACNP data were either
incomplete or not up to date, the
libraries’ web sites were consulted,
where available
THE SURVEY
Criteria of selection of libraries
Libraries specialized in biology, medicine, public
health and related sciences
Centralized University libraries (interdepartmental and area libraries)
Libraries of pharmaceutical firms whose data
were not updated in ACNP were excluded
As a result, out of the about 900 ACNP
libraries covering biomedical and related
fields, 253 (nearly 30% of the total)
were analysed for the scope of this study
THE SURVEY
Results: Types of libraries
UNIV
4% 10%
HOSP/NHS
RES
17%
40%
IRCCS
IZS
OTHERS
9%
20%
53% = academic/research environment
37% = hospital world
10% = other biomedical organizations
THE SURVEY
Results: Library holdings
9%
1-100
14%
29%
101-500
501-1000
> 1000
48%
Besides,
size
of
collections
was
considered
to to
beprinted
48%
=collection
medium-small
sized
collection
The datathe
relating
to e-journal
size in this
study
refer only
journals,the
outside
as information
scope
regarding
study,
since
collections
does not
of e-journals
affect theisfree
not
29%of=this
less
than
101itjournals
included
in ACNP
and=adopted
ismore
seldomthan
available
thetheir
libraries’
web-sites
23%
500on
journals
or fee-based
policies
by
libraries
for
DD service
THE SURVEY
Results: DD service
Fee-based
Exchange
Free
45% = exchange/free basis
15% = hybrid system (fee or free/exchange)
5% = fee basis
35% = no DDS
5%
35%
Hybrid/mixed
Not offered
41%
15%
4%
THE SURVEY
Results: DD user groups
21%
Libraries
Libraries +
Individuals
79%
As a rule, libraries that supply a fee-based DD service effectively
do so to both libraries and end-users: they are generally mediumsized or large libraries that are obliged to amortize the
considerable costs of subscriptions, staff and facilities
THE ISS LIBRARY
Library specializes in scientific documentation with
special emphasis on biomedical and public health fields
Library holdings:
9,000 printed journals
4,800 e-journals
200,000 monographs
Special collections of:
• Rare books (XVI-XX cent.)
• WHO documents
DD AT THE ISS LIBRARY
The history
The policy governing the DD service at ISS Library
has seeen two phases:
Until May 1998 the DD service was provided
free of charge at the national level, within the
framework of a policy of cooperation with
other biomedical libraries
Since June 1998 the DD has been governed by
Ministerial Decree (DM) 1/6/1998 (later
replaced by DM 6/3/2000) which introduced a
fee-based system
DD AT THE ISS LIBRARY
A hybrid system
The same decree also provides for documents to be
supplied free to authorised institutions and users.
The ISS Library thus in effect offers a hybrid
service, which is provided free of charge in the
following cases:
• Whenever the request comes from a developing country
A considerable number of transactions
• Whenever users request a WHO publication
are completed free or on exchange basis:
• Whenever the request comes from a participant in a
library network with which there is an official document
inexchange
2005 these
accounted for 56% of the total
agreement
CONCLUSIONS
The analysis of ACNP
data clearly shows that:
Notes about the survey results…
60% of Italian libraries adopt a policy based
on the free supply of documents, even though
15% of them adopted a hybrid system
5% provide a DD service exclusively on a fee basis
35% do not provide a DD service at all
47% of
the
total of
have
joined
initiatives
47%…
this is
particularly
interest
in a country
like Italy
launched
specifically
to are
promote
the exchange
where
policies
of cooperation
still somewhat
undeveloped
of documents ( such as NILDE)
The present study
also provided an opportunity to examine the DD
service offered by the ISS Library within the Italian
context and to evaluate the future of DDS at ISS
Notes about the future of DDS at ISS…
The future development of the DD
service at the ISS Library depends
above all on the policy of the parent
institution, although there has always
been a tendency to conform with
policies adopted by other libraries:
the current trend is to continue with
the hybrid system with a view to
improving the service…
…Two initiatives are currently under way:
1. To reduce the cost
of the DD service and
to simplify invoicing
procedures
2. To introduce a new
payment system based
on POS technology
which will allow users
to pay online with a
credit card
Thanks for your attention !
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