Changing Academic Library Services:
Document Delivery
Alexis Soard
IRLS561
December 10, 2008
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Academic library services are constantly evolving. New technology has forced libraries to change the ways that they provide their services, pushing them away from slower, traditional methods to faster, electronic processes. One such area that has been affected by technology’s push is document delivery. Traditionally, document delivery services were paper based where student workers or librarians photocopied articles from print magazines, books, or other formats on to physical paper (Kelly Moore, personal communication, December 3, 2008). In today’s digital world, however, paper copies of materials have been replaced by electronic files, often in the forms of portable document formats (PDFs) (Dieterle, 2002, p.244). This paper will look take a close look at this type electronic document delivery service, exploring its evolution from a fax-based service to an Internet delivered one, the effect that technology has played in its growth and development, the pros and cons libraries encounter when offering such a service, and student experiences with electronic document delivery, concluding with a brief look into this service’s future.
What is document delivery?
Before continuing on, the phrase document delivery needs to be defined.
Document delivery often has several names and can mean different things to different universities. For the purposes of this paper, document delivery will refer to services where the library provides electronic photocopies of articles and book chapters to patrons from its own and outside library collections. Interlibrary loan, which “is the [physical] sharing of materials among libraries” (Hilyer, 2006, p.3) and is often included in document delivery services, will not be included in this paper’s definition of document delivery due to its difference in format.

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Document delivery services have been present in academic libraries for many years. As Shipman et al. explained, in the 1980s, librarians relied heavily on fax machines to deliver articles to students (as cited in Rodman, 2002, p.65). In this process, librarians would obtain physical copies of each requested article which they would then fax to each individual student. Upon receiving the fax, each student would print the document, creating a second physical copy of the article. Not only was this process time consuming, it required the use of a large amount of paper and librarians had great concerns regarding the quality of fax transmissions (Shipman et al., as cited in Rodman,
2002, p.65).
During the 1990s, document delivery services saw an increase of software availability due to the rise and popularity of the Internet (Cornish as cited by Rodman,
2002, p.65). Computer programs such as Ariel, Relais, IntelliDOC, Illiad, and DocView became common installments in the academic library environment and helped lower transaction costs for each request. They also provided improved article quality by allowing librarians to directly scan materials into them, eliminating the need to create an initial physical copy of the material. While some libraries may have still had to then print the article to send to a student, these programs helped reduce some of the initial time and effort needed to obtain the requested document. Document delivery processes were slowly but surely becoming faster and more efficient.
Up until this point in time, however, document delivery was still a fairly underused service. Kelly Moore, the Library Operations Supervisor at the University of
Phoenix’s University Library and a thirteen-year veteran of library services, stated that, due to long processing times and delivery uncertainty, document delivery services were

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“not really utilized” in the beginning of her library career (personal communication,
December 3, 2008). For her library, if documents were not held by the library itself, she and other library staff members would not be able to fulfill a student’s request as, at that time, the library was unable to make outside purchases from vendors for individual articles and had no relationships with other libraries to share materials. The service, she noted, could also become costly for students who were requesting several documents for research projects, with each article request costing $2.50.
This began to change, however, near the beginning of the new millennium. Early in the 2000s, libraries began to implement new forms of document delivery (Dieterle,
2002, p.247, McKay, Foster, & Bedard, 2007, p.50, & Rodman, 2002, p.66). Instead of delivering articles via fax, libraries gravitated towards delivery documents via email and other growing technologies (Rodman, 2002, p.66). Some libraries even implemented delivery through secured websites, allowing students to retrieve documents at their own convenience (Arnold, Sias, & Zhang, 2002, p.36, & Arlitsch, Lombardo, & Gregory,
2005/2006, p.110). Not only did this allow for quicker turnaround times, it also improved article quality and moved document delivery services from being a barely used service to one of students’ major avenues for obtaining materials (Kelly Moore, personal communication, December 3, 2008, & Rodman, 2002, p.66).
Technology and Document Delivery
One of the largest forces that has affected document delivery services has been technology. Technology, as mentioned previously, has changed the way that libraries both obtain and deliver materials. As Oberlander (2007) discussed, libraries are now using portable scanning devices, such as laptops with scanners connected to them, to

Soard 5 create PDFs of documents (p.36), a process that both saves time and leaves the physical material available on the shelf for other library users (Dieterle, 2002, p.244). Some libraries have even begun experimenting using personal digital assistants, or PDAs, for scanning as an alternative to laptops since PDAs are typically smaller and more lightweight (Rodman, 2002, p.73).
The organization of document delivery services has even become better with the implementation of new technologies. As Kristina Green mentioned, the ability to file requests electronically has had a large and positive impact on the overall way libraries organize and delivery their document delivery service (personal communication,
November 22, 2008). Requests are now easier to track due to electronic, automatic order numbers that are assigned to each request and the ability to keep a large backlog of requests in electronic format has assisted the library when analyzing popular journals and other materials being considered for subscription (Kelly Moore, personal communication,
November 22, 2008).
On the other side of document delivery, email and the Internet have made delivering documents easier for students and more streamlined in terms of process. As
Kelly Moore noted, document delivery services now have much faster turnaround times than they previously did, with most documents delivered to students in one or two business days of their initial request (personal communication, December 3, 2008). Costs have also been reduced. At the University Library and other libraries around the globe, documents are often free of charge as long as their total cost is under a certain dollar amount (Kelly Moore, personal communication, December 3, 2008, Arnold, Sias, &
Zhang, 2002, p.36, & McKay, Foster, & Bedard, 2007, p.51).

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From the student perspective, even ordering a document has become simpler. In the past, students had to email, phone, or fax in a request for a document (Kelly Moore, personal communication, December 3, 2008). In today’s library, though, students can often click on a link in the database they are searching and be taken directly to an electronic document delivery form where they can proceed to request the document
(Arlitsch, Lombardo, & Gregory, 2005/2006, p.109). At the University Library, computer programming on the administrative side of the library even locates the pertinent information in the document citation, such as article title, journal name, etc., and pre-fills part of the document delivery form for the user (Kelly Moore, personal communication,
December 3, 2008).
Implementing this kind of technology has had its downfalls, though. Obtaining the computer software required to provide electronic document delivery services has been costly for libraries, often requiring an investment of several thousand dollars (Rodman,
2002, p.66). Training has also been an issue, with staff often resistant to the changes and expressing uncertainty regarding their ability to deliver the new services (Yang, 2005, p.50-51). Despite these issues, however, document delivery services have continued to flourish with the arrival of new technology and change the way that libraries provide information.
The Pros and Cons of Electronic Document Delivery
Like any library service, electronic document delivery has its share of pros and cons. On the plus side, document delivery services allow libraries to provide access to a wider scope of materials (Arnold, Sias, & Zhang, 2002, p. 36, & Kristina Green, personal communication, November 22, 2008). Instead of being limited to a single library’s

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Another upside to electronic document delivery is that users do not have to leave the comfort of their home to gain access to library materials (McKay, Foster, & Bedard,
2007, p.54). As one patron noted, “[Electronic document delivery] is great compared to spending hours walking, finding resources, photocopying, and then finally leaving…[it] has enabled me to get more research and writing done” (McKay, Foster, & Bedard, 2007, p.54). In terms of cost, many libraries feel that the price of offering an electronic document delivery service often equals the increased amount of patron satisfaction.
Offering the electronic document delivery portion…adds costs to the already labor and resource-intensive operations of [the library]…[however, it] streamlines…operations, increases the client utilization of resources, increases the productivity of library users and makes using the library more convenient for patrons. We regard it as a service we cannot afford not to provide.
(McKay, Foster, & Bedard, 2007, p.53-54)
On the opposite side of this view, however, document does have its downsides.
Libraries sometimes have legal obligations to vendors that may prevent them from providing a document through an electronic document delivery service (Arnold, Sias, &
Zhang, 2002, p.36). Copyright laws regarding electronic document delivery services are still ambiguous at best, even though recent initiatives have been passed in attempts to

Soard 8 provide clearer guidance for these services (Rodman, 2002, p.68-69, & Nixon, 2003, p.56-57). Document delivery due dates are often unpredictable, with delivery times ranging anywhere from a few hours to several weeks depending on how difficult the document is to locate and procure (McKay, Foster, & Bedard, 2007, p.55, & Kelly
Moore, personal communication, December 3, 2008). Regardless of these issues, though, most libraries and patrons alike find document delivery a huge asset to academic libraries and continue to utilize it to create a more satisfying library experience.
Student Experiences with Document Delivery Services
For the class discussion of this topic, students were asked to give their personal experiences with document delivery services. In general, all of the students have had good experiences with document delivery services. Rebecca Bliquez stated this type service was “the most helpful research service that I have encountered within the library”
(personal communication, November 20, 2008). Anthony Orzula noted the lack of technical issues typically associated with electronic document delivery (personal communication, December 3, 2008) and Kristina Green pointed out the service’s ability to enable intellectual freedom (personal communication, November 22, 2008). The one obstacle to document delivery services that was mentioned echoed McKay and Kelly
Moore’s complaints regarding libraries’ inability to predict specific due dates (Kristina
Green, personal communication, November 22, 2008).
In terms of cost, all students reported that they had never requested anything they had to pay for. From her experience, Kristina already knew that the document delivery service at the library she works for was free to all staff members so the lack of cost was of no surprise to her (Kristina Green, personal communication, November 22, 2008).

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Rebecca was a bit surprised and thought that hidden fees would be added to her tuition statements but was pleased to find that the services were actually free (Rebecca Bliquez, personal communication, November 20, 2008). Anthony pointed out that he has even gone out of his way to find a free copy of a document when a library attempted to charge him for the document, noting that the payment for the material was unnecessary “when so many resources are free of charge” (Anthony Orzula, personal communication, December
3, 2008).
Changes for the document delivery services that the students reported were similar to those found through outside research. Rebecca reiterated the influence of technology on the digitization of document delivery services (Rebecca Bliquez, personal communication, November 20, 2008). Kristina discussed the impact of copyright laws and how processes have become more complicated as a result (Kristina Green, personal communication, November 22, 2008). Anthony touched on the idea that services will only continue to grow and become faster and more cost effective (Anthony Orzula, personal communication, December 3, 2008).
Overall, all students saw technology as a good influence for libraries’ document delivery services. Kristina pointed out that electronic document delivery made it easier for distance students to use library materials that they would otherwise not have access to
(Kristina Green, November 22, 2008). Rebecca restated “the convenience of quick access and easy storage” that electronic delivery provides (Rebecca Bliquez, personal communication, November 20, 2008). The one shortcoming that Anthony pointed out was that document delivery services can sometimes make the library invisible to students,

Soard 10 though, how to resolve this issue is not certain (Anthony Orzula, personal communication, December 3, 2008).
The Future of Document Delivery Services
As discussed, document delivery has had an exciting past. It began primarily as a fax-based service with librarians creating several physical copies of the same document to a streamlined electronic process with little to no paper involved. It has been heavily influenced by technology, particularly the Internet and portable electronic devices that allow for easier scanning and delivery. It has its ups and downs but tends to be viewed as beneficial by those who implement and use it. Student experiences with document delivery services have been positive and even surprising for some in regards to the quality and cost of the service.
But, where does it go from here? Unfortunately, predictions on the future of document delivery are sketchy and conflicting. Rodman (2002) stated a desire to positively grow document delivery services in order to better meet student needs (p.73).
But, conversely, Jacobs and Morris (1999) discussed the dissolution of traditional boundaries between information suppliers and the users, leaving conventional document delivery service departments unsure of their place within the library (143-144). Kelly
Moore took a neutral approach, stating that she believed document delivery services would always be present in the University of Phoenix’s University Library but that the amount of requests would decrease as the library subscribed to more resources and had the ability to better link students to other library content (personal communication,
December 3, 2008).

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In this author’s opinion, all three have valid points and are right in certain contexts. For some universities, electronic document delivery services will continue to grow and mature, providing limitless information to its users. For others, like the
University Library, requests will start to diminish as other technologies are put in place to better guide users to available materials. Traditional document delivery departments will have to change and may have to redefine their roles within the demands technology and users. Whatever happens though, one thing seems certain. Electronic document delivery services are here and will remain a major source of information in the academic library for some time to come.

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References
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Dieterle, U. (2002). Digital document delivery to the desktop: Distance is no longer an issue. Journal of Library Administration, 37 (1/2). 243-250. Retrieved November
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