Scientific information in the digital age and its influence on Interlibrary loan and document delivery

Interlibrarlibrary loan (ILL) has always been very important and had its place among other library services. The service enables library to obtain material from other library to its users, or to supplies material to another library. Computerization of library operations, technological changes, the appearance of the World Wide Web, proliferation of library material in digital form influenced inerlibrary loan services as well. Nowadays more frequently terms Document delivery (DD) and Resource sharing (RS) are used for the service. 

Towards the end of 20th century scholarly journal publishing has undergone significant changes by introduction of e-journals to the market. The other types of library materials followed the trend with its own digital editions (e-books, e-thesis etc.). The academic publishers had monopoly on publishing for years, as the consequence the subscription prices were high, access to e-publication was restricted therefore Open Access initiative emerged as a response.

The initiative has been supported by policies of many countries demanding that publicly funded research should be available free of charge to all. How technological changes and increased availability of electronic resources have influenced ILL service will be shown on the Centre for Scientific Information example together with overview of current trends in the world.