Library Inter-Library Loan Service

The University of Baltimore Law Library offers an Inter Library Loan service to a private law firm in the Baltimore area. The ILL service uses scanning technology to post the requested documents on a secret law library web page. This prevents the need for faxing. The web page is not password protected but there is no link to it from the library's home page.

This is how the service works. The law library has a private URL to receive the ILL requests. The URL is not linked to any page on the library's web page. The URL is privately given out to a particular local law firm. Once the library receives the ILL request, the library retrieves the necessary items, scans the items and posts them to the private URL. The law firm can then go to that web page and print out a scanned version of the document. The documents stay up no more than four days.

We have been told that this service may be in violation of the copyright law. We would like to know whether subscribers think it is illegal and why. We are wondering why this would be any different than merely faxing the law firm photocopies of documents. We also wonder whether it is relevant that thus far, only one law firm in Baltimore knows the URL. The library has contemplated expanding the service by offering it to other firms.

Any bibliographic references would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Matthew Wright
c/o Emily Greenberg
University of Baltimore Law Library
<matwright[_at_]ubmail.ubalt.edu> Received on Fri Jul 23 1999 - 20:55:23 GMT