6th International Conference on Interlending and Document Supply

Citation

Wood, D. (2000), "6th International Conference on Interlending and Document Supply", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 28 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2000.12228aab.001

6th International Conference on Interlending and Document Supply

Compiled in collaboration with the IFLA Office for International Lending 6th International Conference on Interlending and Document Supply

The latest in the series of international conferences on interlending and document supply took place in Pretoria, South Africa from 25-29 October, 1999. The conference was organised by staff from the State Library and the University of South Africa (UNISA). The conference, chaired by Dr Peter Lor and Prof. John Willemse, was opened by Dr Ben Ngubane, South Africa's Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.

The conference was attended by nearly 200 delegates from around the world, 25 per cent of whom were from outside Africa.

Some 30 papers were delivered and covered a wide range of topics - from the future of document supply, world wide co-operation and international standards to the financial and technical problems facing the developing countries in Africa.

The following are a few quotations selected at random from the papers presented and serve to highlight some of the issues touched upon at the conference.

The status quo is a recipe for disaster - Phyllis Spies (OCLC).ILL hydrophobia is the fear of sending ILLs over water - Mary Jackson (AL).Standards underlay our ability to provide fast effective global document delivery services - John Ellis (RLG).Interlending in Africa is fragmented and without direction - Eric Ndegwa (Maseno University College, Kenya).Access to adequate library services and resources is essential for the attainment of superior academic skills in post secondary education regardless of where students, faculty and programs are located - Jean L Cooper (University of Virginia).No money, no service - Malcolm Smith (The British Library).Small is "not only" beautiful - Nigel Lees (Royal Society of Chemistry).The higher the technology the higher the risk - Peter Lor (State Library, SAP).

A number of evening receptions allowed delegates not only to sample South African hospitality but to get to know each other better.

Images from the conference

The Proceedings of the Conference will be published by the IFLA Office for International Lending and several of the papers will appear in forthcoming issues of this journal.

David WoodEditor