Up to £29m will be saved by new system

A £9.84 million five-year project to safeguard UK research journals and allow easier access to them for academics was recently announced by the HEFCE. The project is being led by Imperial College London and follows a successful 18-month pilot. The British Library will store journals for the academic community in the UK research reserve repository. This will save each university having to store duplicates, saving up to £29 million alongside 100 kilometres of shelf space. The journals will be available for researchers in either printed or electronic format.

Professor David Eastwood, Chief Executive of HEFCE, expressed his enthusiasm:
"This is a shared services project that truly demonstrates what can be achieved in the HE sector."

Deborah Shorley, Imperial's director of library services, said: "The UKRR is a fantastic example of HEFCE, Imperial and the British Library working together to produce a better and more coherent way to access research material.
"It addresses the problem of libraries up and down the country with duplicate copies of low use periodicals and will offer a more sophisticated approach to providing information for the UK's research community."

Dame Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library, has spoken of her support for the project:
"The award recognises our key role in supporting university libraries to meet the changing needs of researchers, and safeguarding research material for future access."