Results of a Work Study of Interlibrary and Information Services at Helsinki University of Technology Library

In 1975 statutes were enacted in Finland concerning costing principles for services rendered by public institutions to outside customers. The basis for costing is cost price. The regulations also concern university libraries, who, however, have not been able to follow the rules to the letter as regards interlibrary lending or copy services. The reasons for this are that interlibrary loans traditionally have been free and also the fact that average unit costs are not known. Several work studies concerning library and information services and their service level have been reported in the literature (1). Studies have been carried out inter alia in the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany and in the U.S.A. The project of the Nordic Committee of Scientific Information and Research Libraries aims at the development of a measuring system for the performance of discrete tasks in the field of information services. Statistical reporting of information services has been difficult, because there are no generally accepted definitions, no Frascati manual . A Scandinavian study of interlibrary services revealed th at the figures obtained in different work studies depended on both actual differences in the service costs and differences in the functional boundaries used (2, 3)