History: pre-20th C. Europe

• Informal, per judgment of librarian/curator (books were often scarce and valuable)

• Attempt to formalize lending in 17th C. *

• Lots of lending across Europe in 19th C:

  • 10,000s volumes shared per year at major institutions

• Bring it over!

• * Gravit FW. Proposed interlibrary loan system in the seventeenth century. Lib Quarterly, 16:331-4, Oct 1946