摘要：This paper presents the analysis of 10048 inter-library loan (ILL) requests received in the Kyorin University Medical Library, Tokyo, in 1995 to examine the relevance of geographical distance between libraries. This study is based on the author's opinion that an ILL request should ideally be sent to the closest library to the library that requested the ILL. Two indices were used for the analysis: distance (1-5) between the libraries that requested the ILL and us (index A), and distance (1-5) between the libraries requested that ILL and the nearest library to them that holds the requested articles (index B). If indices A and B are the same level, the request is considered to be relevant. Results: A total of 4959 requests (49.35%) including 3541 from libraries in Tokyo were relevant. Relevant requests from outside of Tokyo totalled 1418, 21.79% of all requests made outside of Tokyo. A total of 50.65% of all requests were irrelevant. That means that half of the requests could have been made to nearer libraries rather than to us. As distance of the requesting library from us increased, there was a tendency for a decrease in relevancy rate. More than 80% of all requests could be supplied by libraries within distance of 1 to 3. Conclusion: One of the reasons that many libraries can't make ILL requests to nearer libraries is rejection by holders. As the number of ILL requests has been increasing rapidly, rejection of requests by holders can cause stagnated operation of ILL and irrelevant requests. Since there is no official guideline for requesting ILL regarding the distance between libraries, judgement of whether or not to accept the request on the holders' favor. ILL should be operated under a clear and certain policy and not by holders' goodwill.
