Page 120 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Unit 6: Document Delivery Services and Online Services

host organisations, publishers, database publishers, subscription agents, etc. Some provide Notes
internal services only (“in house” document supply); others provide services to the general
public. In practice, it is difficult to draw a line between “internal” and “external” document
delivery. Increasingly, services set up originally to serve closed user groups are opened to the
general public.
As demonstrated by some of the projects in the Libraries Programme, “documents” may also
have the form of digital musical recordings or digitized photographic images. In the future,
multimedia applications (combined use of digitally stored and transmitted text, sound and
images) will become increasingly important, as storage capacities increase and wide-area
networks are developed. In many cases, document delivery services are offered in conjunction
with current awareness services; hence the acronym CAS-IAS. Users of these services are
periodically informed of recently published articles and other relevant literature, in the form of
bibliographical data and abstracts.

Typically, document delivery services are provided through a wide variety of technical means
and media. Even though the days of xeroxing and mailing on demand are far from over, electronic
storage (“electro-copying”) and transmission are undoubtedly the technical means of the future.
Texts are stored and delivered electronically in either image or character encoded (OCR) form;
the latter enabling service providers to deliver “customised” information products on demand.
Users may order documents by mail, by telecopier (fax), by electronic mail or in real-time from
computer terminals. Documents are delivered by mail, by fax, by electronic mail and on-line.
At present, a document delivery service typically involves a combination of paper, digital and
electronic media; document delivery is a “hybrid” medium.
The requested material for DDS may be articles from journals, papers from conference proceedings,
any other materials required for academic and research purposes, depending on the availability.
Modern computer and telecommunication technology made it possible to transfer the electronic
text of the document to long distances at extremely fast speed.

Definition

Document delivery services (DDS) is concerned with the supply of document to the user on
demand either in original or its photocopies irrespective of the location and form of original
document. The Document Delivery Centre (DDC) on demand, deliver the copies of papers from
learned journals, conference proceedings and other material available in their collection. Every
DDC will also make the required effort to procure and supply the paper from other institution.

Need

The need for DDS felt due to ever increasing subscription cost of learned journal that leads to a
situation where no library can hold every item required to meet the needs of its user.

DDS Providers

The British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston and University Microfilm International,
Ann Arbor provides the DDS at international level.
In national level, INFLIBNET Centre in collaboration with the following universities provides
DDS. The role of INFLIBNET here is mainly to act as a catalyst in promoting this service.

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi: For the region of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,
Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 115