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Looks at contrasting views of the future of the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC); that it will become obsolete or, conversely, grow in importance. Explores the problems of co‐operative collection development, its economics, politics and terminology in both theory and practice. Examines methods for evaluating the costs of interlending, and demonstrates the limitations of a single price structure. Shows how reciprocal borrowing is becoming an increasingly popular solution to collection development.

Faced with the obvious impossibility of remaining totally self‐sufficient whilst trying to maintain collections and services in difficult economic times, many librarians have turned to resource sharing as the answer to their problems. This article aims to review the ever growing field of literature on resource sharing in order to try to discover what resource sharing is, what need there is for it, what it is intended or hoped to achieve, what sort of resource sharing plans and schemes have been implemented, and in particular to try to find any evidence in the literature on the real benefits and actual costs involved in resource sharing which could be used as justification for such schemes in comparison with other methods of maximizing access to resources.

In the UK there have been some recent signs that the inland waterways can play a role in meeting the nation's transport needs. The author discusses the progress already made and what still needs to be done so that the country's canals can once again take up their position in the transport scene.