The impact of electronic journals on interlibrary lending: A longitudinal study of statewide interlibrary loan article sharing in Illinois

Interlibrary loan (ILL) article sharing data from the 26 largest libraries in Illinois were collected in 1995/96, 1999/00, and most recently in 2002/03. The OCLC Management Statistics Service supplied the data with the permission of the participating libraries. Longitudinal data analysis focused on the changes that have taken place in article sharing over the past eight years within the state, offering insights into the impact of access to electronic journals. Results show a decline in the number of ILL article requests among the 26 largest libraries in Illinois: a near 26% drop in overall article requests took place between these libraries from 1999/00 to 2002/03, a much larger decline than was expected. The data provide answers to frequently posed questions concerning the impact of electronic journal packages on ILL article sharing and offer some insight concerning the future of ILL in the age of full-text online article availability.