„62€
2. When you assume that online orders always refer to urgently needed do-
cuments, then the transmission of a document by letter mail is a weak mem-
ber in the chain. The solution of this problem may be the telefax service
with CCITT group III machines. Speed of transmission and grade of solution
per line seem to be adequate for sending a document to the user nearly im-
mediately after he has requested it. The main condition for the installation
of this service is the condition that supplier and users both have the same,
and again expensive machine.
All other ideas on electronic document delivery will remain sheer speculation
for quite a lot of years. Experiments on text and picture storage of scienti-
fic documents on optical discs have only begun now. They are expected to
cost millions of DM's. Nobody will make such high investments, if he isn't
sure to save money later on. And he cannot be sure as long as he cannot rely
on a general users' acceptance. I cannot imagine that in the near future
some 65 000 publishers(!) of periodicals all over the world will agree on
the same standards, the same hard- and software etc. for document storage,
retrieval and transmission. Neither the British Library Lending Division
nor TIB Hannover will bother to deliver a document, whatever that may look
like, from a tape or a disc instead of from a version on printed paper. It
is the user who says what he wants to get and how - and what he is going
to pay for a special service.
I didn't mention the role of the publisher in his function as a document
supplier. Of course you can buy a book from the next scientific bookseller
or subscribe to a periodical. But in connection with online retrieval from
databases you will need in most cases only one or a few single papers. And
there are so many publishers with as many addresses. And how often the issue
requested is out of print. And how often the publisher take a lot of trouble
to send a copy of the journal and the money will never reach him, and so
on.
In the end you will have to look for a good libary. May be that libraries
are obsolete one day. Let's wait and see, we have still plenty of time.
Addresses of the document delivery centers mentioned above:
1. User Services - International; British Library Lending Division;
Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ, England
2. Madame Fayard; CNRS, Informascience; 26, rue Boyer; F-75971 Paris
Cedex 20
3. Universitátsbibliothek und TIB; Welfengarten 1 B; D-3000 Hannover 1
Jobst Tehnzen is Deputy Director at the Technische
Informationsbibliothek (TIB) Hannover, FR Germany.
He is responsible for cooperation with I &D centres,
for all problems in national and international
supply of literature, and for the application and
installation of new technical means for processing
literature and users requests.
Tehnzen 6
