The use of independent information brokers for document delivery service in hospital libraries.

Hospital libraries have many alternatives to services traditionally supplied by library networks or academic health center libraries. As hospital librarians try to balance increased patron expectations with shrinking resources, their selection of vendors and information agencies becomes increasingly important. Messerle points out that one alternative for hospitals is contracting for library services rather than underwriting a full library operation [1]. Information brokers represent a rapidly expanding component of the information services spectrum. There are more than 800 such fee-based enterprises in North America [2]. There has been little research specifically about hospital libraries to determine what motivates the change to alternative sources or the extent to which independent broker services are used. However, studies of the impact of information brokers on document delivery service in academic and corporate libraries have shown that patrons placed a high value on fast delivery of requested documents and that libraries that used commercial services were willing to pay more to obtain materials rapidly. Most studies indicate that delivery time for commercial services compares favorably with that for traditional interlibrary loan (ILL) networks [3-5]. In a 1988 study, however, Miller and Tegler found that commercial services did not supply documents any faster than did normal library ILL procedures. They also found that higher charges did not result in faster delivery times and that local operations were no faster in providing documents than distant sources [6].