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A Study of Utilizing Interlibrary Loan and Circulation Data to Explore the Use of Cost-Effectiveness of University Library CollectionKeywords: Interlibrary loan , Book purchase , Collection development , Use of costeffectiveness Abstract: The primary task of university libraries is to provide necessary materials to support those who are engaged in teach and research. It is the most basic work to build library collections to meet their requirements. However, with soaring book prices and limited budget contraction, interlibrary loan services have become one of widely used solutions to alleviate such financial embarrassment. By analyzing the records of circulation and interlibrary loan, Ruppel evaluated the usage benefits of the books and provided references for budgeting books procurement. In Taiwan, researches about collection development and procurement in university libraries mostly used and analyzed interlibrary loan records to discuss the amount and categories of lending and borrowing books. The resulted information could be applied to analyze library collection strength and to help library collection development. Benefit analysis of book usage is extremely scarce. This study focuses on the effectiveness of interlibrary loan services in university libraries. We use the records of library circulation and interlibrary loan, to analyze thus compare the cost-effectiveness of usage of collection and interlibrary loan books. Our result revealed that since the borrowing times of collection Chinese books are higher than those of interlibrary loan, the cost of average Chinese book usage time is lower than the one of interlibrary loan. However, the case on foreign language books is just the opposite. Considering better cost-effectiveness book usage, we proposed an improved interlibrary loan process in this research. We also made use of SERVQUAL questionnaire to understand user satisfactions in order to put forward suggestions. This study is expected to conduce to the enhancement of decision-making quality on university library collection development and interlibrary loan.
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