Abstract

The development of four main documentation and information networks in 1971 followed by more than twenties or something networks focussed on better collaboration and document availability as well as its deliveries to its institution members Alas in its development only a handful networks still operating while the others are in limbo. The establishment of various forum of libraries in 1990s spurred the development of one-kind-of- library-co-operations, especially among the special and academic libraries. Academic libraries initiated the interlibrary loan (ILL) scheme among themselves, mostly without formal agreement by their chancellors but agreement reached among themselves. The forum of academic libraries issued a forum card (called kartu sakti or divine card!) which enabled member of academic libraries to use other academic library facilities but borrowing without experiencing bureaucratic and other administrative constraints. This scheme is operating on nearby cities, otherwise it is a burden for a students or lecturers to utilise libraries in other cities. The next step is ILL scheme, further followed by digital document delivery. However ILL scheme encountered constraints, among others are the borrower library has no budget to return the borrowed books while the lending libraries do not always provide budget to send the books hence required prepayments for delivery; in many state universities, book are legally considered as the state property so are not allowed leaving the compound [sic]; the reluctance among librarians to lend their books outside the campus on judgments that their own collection are still not good enough to serve their users; from postal service point of view books are still considered first class matters hence has no right to special discount for document delivery; a tendency among small academic libraries to borrow and utilise bigger libraries. Field surveys shown that Indonesian librarians solved the ILL problems by sending Xeroxed copies to the requesting libraries albeit breaching the copyright act! Digital document delivery still encountered traditional problems such as copyright problems, anxiety for pasting use by its requester and the infrastructure constraints. For school and public libraries, ILL is (almost) non-exist, while for special libraries the ILL scheme operated based on agreement among themselves. Alas, in such condition the National Library of Indonesia does not actively engaged in ILL activities although one of is main function is to coordinate the nation-wide-ILL-activities; hence for many users especially in rural areas, borrowing books through ILL scheme is a long-overdue dream.