Recent Trends in document delivery service:

Recent Trends As mentioned earlier document delivery scene has changed with the emergence of a large number of electronic databases and establishment of telecommunication networks. The scope of DDS has expanded beyond the traditional libraries and specialised document delivery centres. Database producers, commercial online vendors and commercial publishers are also joining the document delivery market. Genuine Article Service of Current Contents from Institute of Scientific Information, D I A L O R D E R  service from DIALOG, ADONIS from publishers of biomedical journals are some of the examples. Emerging technologies have also changed the mode of transmission of requests as well as supply of documents. Postal services used for transmission of requests are being replaced by telephone, telex, fax, e-mail and online ordering. Mode of delivery of documents from supplier to requesters are also witnessing similar change. Traditional document storage, retrieval and photocopying functions are increasingly being replaced by imaging technology.

This technology uses series of devices that scan paper copy or microform copy of the document, capture the document image and store it in digital format on CD-ROM. The compatible CD-ROM drive reads the disk, searches the information and transmits the images to the requester via printer, fax or satellite links. In other words, electronic document delivery systems are emerging.