27 December 2012

LAC as lender of last resort

  • LAC have announced their intention to continue to make interlibrary loans as “lender of last resort” starting in September 2013 in order to support access to unique materials only available in LAC’s collection. There will be a gap from now to that time, one for which LAC's answers are to visit LAC in person, hire an agent, or request copies at 40 cents per page, intellectual property right permitting.

    Based on previous demand LAC expects the new system will apply primarily to monographs, as well as some newspapers and serials that are unique to LAC’s holdings.

    Likely those most seriously impacted will be in the university community. The Ottawa Public Library inform me that only 3% of their ILL requests go to LAC. Owing to proximity you'd think the OPL would be making more use of LAC than other public library systems.

    The bottom line is that the new policy may well not produce as much in the way of decreased demand to LAC as the policy would suggest.

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