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I've had a lot of very interesting feedback to my comments and would like to make three further points: 1. Thanks for the information that BLSDC doesn't use its deposit copies for ILL. The point I was making, however, isn't really affected by this. BLSDC is publicly funded to make loans, so why not use it for that? 2. What is a community anyway? Many of my ILL requests come from academic staff who are working on what may be shortlived research projects, perhaps a year or two. They may even be working on proposals for projects that don't come to fruition. What they need (they are engineers) is usually very specific stuff which other members even of their faculty may not find of interest. I can't buy expensive materials on that basis - and think I'd be wrong to do so. 3. I love the idea that someone may be so moved by something they saw that they would come back years later and find it again: I have to say that it would almost certainly have gone. The policy here is that the library cannot expand infinitely (or in fact at all): if I have a budget of x pounds per year I am supposed to get rid of the equivalent amount of material to make room for it. I can't actually do so , but I have to go as far towards it as possible. No doubt in future some of this problem will be solved by paying subscriptions to providers of electronic services in full text rather than having material on the shelves. I know browsing will be lost this way, but I can't see any alternative. The problem of space is a really pressing one, and forces on me a pretty rigorous approach to purchasing. Do others feel the same? Clare Bainbridge Engineering Subject Librarian University of the WEst of England, Bristol [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%