scope:

The NISO Physical Delivery of Library Resources Working Group's interest lies in identifying methods for improving performance and reducing the cost of moving materials between a library that owns an item and another library whose patron wants to use the item.

The scope of this document is limited to the external delivery of items between separately administered libraries, although many of the recommendations could apply to delivery between branches of a single library system, as well. External delivery can be based on consortial delivery within a shared system, a region, a state, or a country. It can also apply to items moving through a standard interlibrary loan request. We do not specifically cover using international carriers such as FedEx or UPS, who have their own systems of packaging that must be followed; however, many of the recommended practices in this document, such as internal labeling, can apply with these carriers.

In developing these recommendations, the working group recognizes that library courier systems operate in various environments without standardized funding mechanisms, geographies, or library participants. Therefore, each library system must consider local needs and conditions when evaluating these recommendations for implementation. Archival, rare, and specialized materials require special handling. These unique requirements are outside the scope of this document, but we recommend the ACRL/RBMS Guidelines for Borrowing and Lending Special Collections Materials Task Force (http://rbms.info/committees/task_force/borrowing/index.shtml) for more information on handling those materials.