Project Brief

The purpose of this one-year project is to explore further and take forward the principal recommendation made in the report "Monograph Inter-lending for the Higher Education Research Community", which was jointly commissioned by CURL and the British Library in 2003.

The consultants report is available here.

The report recommends the adoption and implementation of a ‘BLDSC Plus’ option that would involve the British Library forming a consortium with a range of partner libraries willing to provide monograph inter-lending services to defined service standards and charges.

The project will aim:

(a) To scope the prior implementation phase for BLDSC Plus, as recommended by the Report, including making specific recommendations on the following issues: governance mechanisms; criteria and terms of conditions for participation in the scheme; specification of service levels; pricing and payment policy and mechanisms; IT specifications; future funding requirements; relationship of the service to the soon to be created Research Libraries Network (RLN).

(b) To discuss and agree the prior implementation scoping recommendations with:

	the key organisations involved, including the British Library, the other national libraries, CURL, the RLN and a sample of research librarians (including CURL librarians);
	with the wider information community via a broad cross-sectoral consultation exercise, with a view to gaining commitment to the new scheme from as broad a base as possible;

(c) To prepare an implementation plan for the agreed scheme, by making specific recommendations on the following: membership and terms of reference of the scheme’s Management Board; identification of partner libraries; a detailed and timed work plan for implementation.

(d) To liaise closely with the CURL Resource Management Task Force on progress with implementation.

The project is co-funded by CURL and the British Library on a 50-50 basis.

- Final recommendations of the Monograph Interlending Project Steering Group

These recommendations have been made by the steering group as a means of providing further opportunities for CURL and British Library to work collaboratively to improve current interlending practices.

- The "BookNow" Model

The fundamental brief of the Monograph Interlending project was to explore further and take forward the principal recommendation made in the 'Monograph Inter-lending for the Higher Education Research Community report’, i.e. ‘the adoption and implementation of a ‘BLDSC Plus’ option that would involve the British Library forming a consortium with a range of partner libraries willing to provide monograph inter-lending services to defined service standards and charges’. An imaginative system was scoped via the BookNow model, and the key elements of an implementation workplan identified.