---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 16:50:48 +0100
From: Barry Mahon <barry.mahon@CI.RECH.LU>
Subject: Docdel Study Published

I thought tht Members of this list might be interested in the new report
published by Eusidic, on the subject of European Document Delivery
services:

        Eusidic/Eurolug release the 1995 Document Delivery Report

Eusidic, the European Association of Information Services and Eurolug, the
Association of European Online User groups have published the results of
their joint study of document delivery in Europe.

The essential details:

-    An analysis of 5525 document orders from 164 ordering organisations
in Europe,

-    The average delay for the reception of documents ordered: 6.6 +/- 3.7
days,

-     The number of the requests not satisfied: almost one in five,

-     The apparent absence of information on the reasons for non-delivery,
in 65.8% of the cases no information was provided, in the survey period,

-      The enormous quantity of documents delivered by "traditional"
methods,

The basic survey took place between 6 and 10 March 1995, when the
participants recorded their orders for documents. The date limit for the
receipt of the documents ordered during the above period was 24 March
1995, i.e. two weeks after the last date for recording the orders.

The survey consisted of members of the national on line user groups in 15
European countries recording their document orders during a one week
period and then recording when the documents were delivered. The time
allowed for the delivery was two weeks after the end of the order
recording period; i.e. a maximum of three weeks from the earliest date of
ordering.

For the whole set of documents ordered, the method of ordering most used
was "on-line" (37.8%) followed by:

              by post (23.7%),
              by facsimile (22.2%),
              by electronic mail (12.3%).

The number of documents received before the 24th of March 1995, the date
limit for the survey, was 4458 or 80.7% of the 5565 documents ordered,
1067 documents (19.3%) were not received by that date, two weeks, at
minimum, after the date of ordering.

The report costs 100 ECU ($130) for Eusidic Members; 150 ECU ($200) for
others. The money is used to pay for the data processing and publishing.

Orders to Eusidic at PO Box 1416, L-1014 Luxembourg;
Fax (+352) 250 750 222; or by email to:barry.mahon@ci.rech.lu

Barry Mahon, Executive Director,
EUSIDIC, The European Association of Information Services