- Education Guardian,
- Thursday July 17 2008
The English funding council (Hefce) today announced a £10m project to safeguard the UK's research journals and make it easier for academics to get hold of them.
Led by Imperial College London, the £9.84m five-year project will mean the British Library stores rarely used journals for the academic community.
The UK research reserve (UKRR) repository will save each university from storing duplicate journals, saving the sector overall up to £29m by freeing up 100km of shelf space.
Researchers will be able to get hold of them either in printed or electronic format.
Dame Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library, said the money represented an important new national shared service.
"The award recognises our key role in supporting university libraries to meet the changing needs of researchers, and safeguarding research material for future access."
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.
