Panjab Inter-Library Cooperation (PILC)
It is logically impossible for a single library to contain all the books in the world and do all of the work by itself. Therefore, Panjab Inter-Library Cooperation (PILC) is a much needed opportunity for partnership, allowing libraries to meet the information requirements of their users. Under the PILC system, two or more libraries cooperate to share their resources which can be in the form of their books, journals, catalogs, etc... This sharing can be done in two ways: one is through on-loan physical delivery of a source to another library and the second is through online digital libraries that share each other's assets electronically through P2P technology. Whichever route is adopted, inter-library sharing and cooperation service can be considered an extremely beneficial option. Interlibrary service makes libraries cost effective, manageable and efficient. Whatever a library does not possess can be made available to its users by borrowing the same from another library. Thus, interlibrary service is reciprocal and mutually beneficial. As internet services increase, and more and more libraries become digital, P2P technology will come to be a primary source of information sharing among libraries. Under this technology, each digital library will have a server which will store its complete database and will be interconnected to the servers of other member libraries of the PILC sharing system. In case a library server is unable to meet the demand for a particular source, it will pass it on to the server of another member library, which may be able to supply the required information. In this way, the user will finally get the required information electronically through the servers of these libraries, at a certain cost and within a certain period of time. Thus, it is PDL's hope that the interlibrary service will grow to be the desired goal of all offline and online libraries of Panjab.