Across the Disciplines

Abstract The authors describe how subsidized, self-service document delivery at the University of Tennessee Library meets researchers' needs with emphasis on comparing delivery service performance by users' discipline. Analysis of use reports from the document delivery vendor (UnCover) and a user survey are the major components of the study presented here. Recognizing that document delivery is like other elements of collection management in that needs vary by discipline, the researchers also acknowledge that libraries never achieve equity in meeting information needs in all fields. The authors set out to test the assumption that researchers in the sciences benefited from a subsidized document delivery service more than those in the social sciences and humanities. Overall satisfaction rates were high across disciplines, while awareness and use was highest among science researchers. Librarians at the University of Tennessee concluded that the Un-Cover@UTK service is useful as one alternative to local ownership of many journals, despite recognized limitations such as article availability, copyright fees, and variable fax quality.