Document delivery to developing countries

This paper presents the findings of a study of fill rate, time, and delivery costs for international document delivery from the Iowa State University Library to libraries and scholars in several developing countries. The overall results included a 73 per cent fill rate and a total turnaround time of 16.3 days. Per page fax charges were almost 12 times as expensive-as air mail costs. International document delivery programmes will need to have the ability to handle a variety of communication methods. In addition, these libraries will need to examine several philosophical issues arising from interlibrary co-operation with partners in developing countries as they determine their place in the complex economic, political and organisational structures related to international document supply.