As early as 1935, he was suggesting that college libraries should develop collective purchasing and interlibrary loan systems.
en.wikipedia.org These systems, known as union catalogs, are usually designed to aid the borrowing of books and other materials among the member institutions via interlibrary loan.
en.wikipedia.org Open access online, by contrast is faster, often immediate, making it more suitable than interlibrary loan for high paced research.
en.wikipedia.org During 2005-2006, the library faculty and staff assisted in 72,239 reference transactions, 503,403 circulation transactions including reserves, and 22,018 interlibrary loan transactions.
en.wikipedia.org