Effect of organizational structure on resource sharing in sci-tech libraries

This paper describes formal resource-sharing (networking) practices among sci-tech special libraries in corporations or other for-profit firms, not-for-profit organizations, government or public agencies, and academic institutions, based on data collected in a comprehensive mail survey of resource sharing by special librarians. The use of formal networks is also compared with the use of commercial document services and informal networking for document delivery. SUrvey data indicate that 89% of the academic, 76% of the government, 66% of the corporate, but only 46% of the not-for-profit libraries are members of or have access to resource-sharing networks. Sci-tech academic librarians are more dependent on their resource-sharing networks for document delivery than corporate librarians, who are the heaviest users commercial or other non-network sources.