RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
Document delivery services
Document delivery services enable you to obtain photocopies of articles or
borrow materials. They are useful for obtaining key journal articles without
taking out a subscription, or consulting a publication or chapter of a book to
assess whether it would be useful to include in your collection. They are
especially useful for materials that are expensive or not essential to the
collection, for example, for users carrying out specialist research.
Document delivery services are usually provided by libraries and
documentation centres via an inter-library loan (ILL) scheme. Some
organisations will lend whole materials, such as books and videos. Others will
only provide photocopies of part of a publication. Remember to check what
service is on offer. There is usually a charge, unless you are part of a network
of cooperating information services.
You can obtain details of document delivery services from national library
services, local library networks, other resource centres working in the same
subject area, current awareness services or e-mail discussion groups.
TIP: UNESCO Coupons
It is not always easy to obtain foreign currency to purchase materials
from abroad. Therefore in some countries, UNESCO coupons can be
purchased in local currency to pay for resource materials in foreign
currency. Coupons can be purchased by educators, research workers
and students. However, if there is only a limited number of coupons
available, the issuing agency decides on an order of priority for the
various requests received.
Information about coupons is available from the National Commission
for UNESCO, or other agencies where there is no UNESCO office in
country.
Coupon users placing orders with suppliers who are unfamiliar with
the scheme may experience difficulty in getting them honoured. If so
they can request assistance from the Coupons Office in the UNESCO
Secretariat. The Office will provide relevant information to the
supplier.
Further information is available at:
http://www.unesco.org/general/eng/about/coupon/coupons.shtml
4.5.2 Procedure for obtaining materials
It is important to develop a clear procedure for obtaining materials and keeping
records of orders and requests, or to follow any existing procedure that the
organisation has for ordering materials. It is also important to obtain only
12 SECTION 4: DEVELOPING THE COLLECTION