I worked for many years running (among other things) an interlibrary loan system. Any librarian in at least the US who says that a free or inexpensive copy is not available for anything other than a rare book or an expensive art or reference book is not doing their job right.
The main problem with the system with respect to Wikipedia is that most libraries work very slowly, so it can take some weeks--and therefore cannot be used in a Wikipedia debate, which is typically closed in a few days (or hours).,
On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 1:42 PM, Durova nadezhda.durova@gmail.com wrote:
Good replies.
Usually in practice that generates one of two responses:
*Either the editor requests an interlibrary loan (or finds someone willing and able). *Or else the editor evades the suggestion and continues disputing on other points.
In practice, it's an effective way to distinguish who's serious about the project and who isn't. I suggested interlibrary loan at a talk page the other day and go an uncooperative response.
Lo and behold, there had previously been a conduct RFC and a positive checkuser result for disruption at that article. A new checkuser came in positive also. Today someone got blocked for a month.
-Durova
On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.comwrote:
2009/3/4 geni geniice@gmail.com:
2009/3/4 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com:
2009/3/4 geni geniice@gmail.com:
Doesn't work so well these days. Enough libraries have been closed and stock sold off that you don't have to get that obscure before you have to turn to the rather expensive out of county loan system. For example my county does not have a copy of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_This_Thing_Called_Science%3F
Can we not assume the whole world is situated in the middle of North America, please?
I'm kinda British.
Most of the English speaking first world is in a reasonable shape with regard to libraries. Outside that I'm not sure.
Oh, sorry, where you referring to British counties (I'm not sure what the public library system is in Britain for this kind of thing - I'm a student so have access to university libraries and inter-library loans through that which aren't expensive at all - maybe even free)? I generally assume if someone doesn't say what country they're talking about then they mean the USA - it's usually a pretty safe assumption.
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