Milestones: Teletype (TWX)

• Shows up in libraries for ILL request processing in 1950s

• Benefit: reduces request “handshake” (routing to various libraries to find willing loaner) from eight or nine days to one hour

  • “people in the sciences, technology and the social sciences hope to have material on ILL within three days. Those working in the Humanities are willing to wait up to a week.”

• But TWX doesn’t fit everywhere

  • The “types of library materials involved in each [library] are significantly different.” James Mack, Librarian, Lehigh University *

• * Mack JD. Teletype Speeds Interlibrary Loans and References. Lib J 83(9):1325-9, May 1958