Rosalia FERRARA - Donatella GENTILI - Vittorio PONZANI

1. 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

2. INTRODUCTION Over the past ten years the information landscape has witnessed considerable changes, accompanied by the emergence of a new set of challenges… OA movement Internet enables users to search autonomously for information and even, in some cases, to gain immediate access to the full-text of relevant articles 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

3. 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…

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 Union catalogue of Italian libraries that have joined the National Library Service ACNP Italian union catalogue of serials, which collects data on the holdings and services of Italian libraries SBBL Library system of the Lombardia Region in the biomedical field GIDIF,RBM Union catalogue of the Italian Group of documentalists of the pharmaceutical industry

7. THE ITALIAN CONTEXT Consortia In Italy there are three main consortia covering different geographical areas: CILEA Northern Italian library consortium 1974 – 10 Lombardy universities CIPE Central-Northeastern Italian library consortium 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

8. 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 Network InterLibrary Document Exchanging Web-based document delivery system aimed to promote cooperation among Italian libraries for improving DDS BIBLIOSAN 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

9. THE SURVEYSources The analysis was carried out on the basis of the union catalogue of serialsACNP, 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

10. THE SURVEYCriteria of selection of libraries Libraries specialized in biology, medicine, public health and related sciences Centralized University libraries (inter-departmental 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

11. THE SURVEY Results: Types of libraries 53% = academic/research environment 37% = hospital world 10% =other biomedical organizations

12. THE SURVEYResults: Library holdings The data relating to collection size in this study refer only to printed journals, as information regarding collections of e-journals is not included in ACNP and is seldom available on the libraries’ web-sites Besides, the size of e-journal collections was considered to be outside the scope of this study, since it does not affect the free or fee-based policies adopted by libraries for their DD service 48% =medium-small sized collection 29% =less than 101 journals 23% =more than 500 journals

13. THE SURVEYResults: DD service 45% = exchange/free basis 15% = hybrid system (fee or free/exchange) 5% = fee basis 35% = no DDS

14. THE SURVEYResults: DD user groups As a rule, libraries that supply a fee-based DD service effectively do so to both libraries and end-users: they are generally medium- sized or large libraries that are obliged to amortize the considerable costs of subscriptions, staff and facilities

15. THE ISS LIBRARY Library specializes in scientific documentation with special emphasis on biomedical and public health fields 9,000 printed journals 4,800 e-journals 200,000 monographs Library holdings: • Special collections of: • Rare books (XVI-XX cent.) • WHO documents

16. DD AT THE ISS LIBRARY The history The policy governing the DD service at ISS Library has seeen two phases: • Until May 1998the 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

17. 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: - A considerable number of transactions are completed free or on exchange basis: in 2005 these accounted for56%of the total • Whenever the request comes from a developing country • Whenever users request a WHO publication • Whenever the request comes from a participant in a library network with which there is an official document exchange agreement

18. CONCLUSIONS Notes about the survey results… The analysis of ACNP data clearly shows that: 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 have joined initiatives launched specifically to promote the exchange of documents ( such as NILDE) 47%… this is particularly of interest in a country like Italy where policies of cooperation are still somewhat undeveloped

19. Notes about the future of DDS at ISS… 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 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…

20. …Two initiatives are currently under way: 1. To reducethe 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

21. Thanks for your attention ! lferrara@iss.it donatella.gentili@iss.it ponzani@iss.it