The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

VI. Delivery and Use 97
Several alternatives have been proposed. As noted in Chapter IV,
the report of the National Commission on Libraries and Information
Science has suggested "expansion of the lending and lending-management
function of the Library of Congress to that of a National Lending Library
of final resort." 18 The Association of Research Libraries had
earlier commissioned a report, published in 1974, which evaluated
three possibilities for a national periodicals system:
1. A single new facility with a comprehensive collection;
2. A new multi-location national system based on a number of
satellite resource centers with dedicated collections of the most
heavily-used titles; and
3. A regional resource network based on designated existing
library collections.
The study projected demand estimates and costs, and concluded
that the first alternative, the single national center, appeared to
offer the best solution. At the ARL meeting in May of 1976, the
Joint Committee on a National Periodicals Lending Library reported
that it felt this study to be "the most authoritative work on the subject"
and suggested that the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago
be designated as the center. 19
The Center for Research Libraries is a large, non-profit institution--a
sort of libraries' library--with over 100 members and a
collection of over 3 million items of primary research material available
for loan to its members. With funding from the National Science
Foundation, it has developed a Journal Access Service which guarantees
to provide access to any periodical title that a member library has
been forced to cancel. Copyright restrictions are avoided simply by
lending the journals rather than copying them. Some libraries have
made very effective use of the service and save substantial sums of
18 National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Toward
a National Program for Library and Information Services: Goals
for Action, Washington, 1975, p. 67.
19 "Progress Report, ARL/CRL Joint Committee on a National Periodicals
Lending Library," Minutes of the Eighty-eighth Meeting, Association
of Research Libraries, 1976, p. 100.