RLUK

The UKRR is a collaborative, co-ordinated and sustainable approach to securing the long term retention, storage and access to low-use printed research journals.

The UKRR will enable:

• Co-ordinated retention of low-use printed journals;
• Quick and easy access to research material;
• Collaborative storage of printed journals.

The UKRR has three goals:

• Safeguarding the long term future of printed research journals. The UKRR will protect vulnerable printed research material by establishing a system to manage the co-ordinated retention of an appropriate number of copies of low-use printed research journals, ensuring that 'last copies' of titles are not inadvertently discarded. Journals within the UKRR will be permanently retained both centrally at the British Library and at an agreed number of libraries within the higher education sector.

• Enabling quick and easy access to research materials. Journals within the UKRR will be accessible to all researchers, regardless of location or institutional affiliation. The UKRR will provide fast and convenient access to journals, by building on the existing strengths of the British Library's document supply service. Researchers will have a choice of accessing journals from the UKRR in printed or electronic format, with electronic desk top delivery being the norm.

• Ensuring efficient use of resources. By co-ordinating the storage and retention of printed journal titles, the higher education library sector will make significant space gains. The space reclaimed from journal storage can be re-purposed for new opportunities and higher priority research, teaching and learning uses.