Rising publication costs and declining financial resources have resulted in renewed interest among librarians in resource sharing. Although the idea of sharing resources is not new, there is a sense of urgency not seen in the past. Driven by rising p...
Rising publication costs and declining financial resources have resulted in renewed interest among librarians in resource sharing. Although the idea of sharing resources is not new, there is a sense of urgency not seen in the past. Driven by rising publication costs and static and often shrinking budgets, librarians are embracing resource sharing as an idea whose time may finally have come. Resource sharing in electronic environments is creating a shift in the concept of the library as a warehouse of print-based collection to the idea of the library as the point of access to need information. Much of the library's material will be delivered in electronic form, or printed. In this new paradigm libraries can not be expected to su n.0, pport research from their own collections. These changes, along with improved communications, computerization of administrative functions, fax and digital delivery of articles, advancement of data storage technologies, are improving the procedures and means for delivering needed information to library users. In short, for resource sharing to be truly effective and efficient, however, automation and data communication are essential. The possibility of using full-text online databases as a su n.0, pplement to interlibrary loan for document delivery is examined. At this point, this article presents possibility of using full-text online databases as a means to interlibrary loan for document delivery. The findings of the study can be summarized as follows : First, turn-around time and the cost of getting a hard copy of a journal article from online full-text databases was comparable to the other document delivery services. Second, the use of full-text online databases should be considered as a method for promoting interlibrary loan services, as it is more cost-effective and labour saving. Third, for full-text databases to work as a document delivery system the databases must contain as many periodicals as possible and be loaded on as many systems as possible. Forth, to contain many scholarly research journals on full-text databases, we need guidelines to cover electronic document delivery, electronic reserves. Fifth, to be a full full-text database, more advanced information technologies are really needed.