German Resources Project: Document Delivery

Document Delivery Working Group

In comparison to domestic document delivery, obtaining German documents unavailable in North America can be difficult and time-consuming. Loans are even more problematic due to the costs and delays in overseas shipment. Frequently librarians have personally contacted German libraries to make a special request in having a document copied and sent to them or to negotiate a loan and subsequent fee payment, costing a library a good deal in staff resources and time.

Today digital technologies are radically transforming the document delivery process in libraries, and these technologies will have a significant impact on procuring hard-to-find documents from across the Atlantic. Loan traffic could be improved simply by improving communication between libraries.

The goal of the Document Delivery Working Group is to improve document delivery and interlibrary loan for German-language materials, both among ARL libraries and between German and North American research libraries. The group will seek to make use of current and emerging technologies in developing inter-library programs for document delivery between German and American academic libraries.

One major initiative of the German Resources Project was the GBV Direkt North American Project, a document delivery service that allowed participating Project libraries to make use of the German GBVdirekt service. Direct ordering however is no longer possible due to copyright and payment problems. However, libraries may still find this link (GBV Databases) useful in confirming titles and volumes held in German libraries.

Other Web resources:

German libraries using OCLC: (for example ZXW, the symbol for the University of Goettingen, use the following link, enter Germany for the country and then hit search: http://www.oclc.org/contacts/libraries/

German Libraries accepting IFLA vouchers (request via IFLA forms) see the IFLA Voucher Scheme Participating Libraries list at:

http://www.ifla.org/VI/2/p1/partcpnt.htm

SUBITO(Primary German document supplier but note that North American libraries are still not allowed to order)

http://www.subito-doc.com/

German online catalogs (the Library of Congress maintains an excellent site)

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/european/germany/de.html

(Last modified June 04)