ABSTRACT
I still remember the first time I used the OCLC Interlibrary Loan Subsystem: the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and a simple OCLC system search revealed the correct bibliographic citation and holdings for a book requested by a patron. An online request form was sent easily to the holding libraries and the item appeared in my library within a week. All was truly right with the world. To understand my feelings of wonder, satisfaction and inner peace, you need to turn back in history to 1979, the year that OCLC automated and revolutionized interlibrary loan. Veteran interlibrary loan librarians can still remember the pre-OCLC days: complex searches for verification of elusive citations, laborious typing of ALA four-part forms to be mailed off to possible holding libraries, waiting weeks or even months for the item to arrive in the library to be placed in the patron's hands. Technological advances led to use of “round robin” circulation of needed items among libraries via teletype and TWX. Is it any wonder that I looked at OCLC Interlibrary Loan as the greatest thing since the Dewey Decimal Classification?
