Nearly £10 million has been awarded to preserve low use journals for those in UK Higher Education. The new initiative, UK Research Reserve (UKRR) aims to improve access to the journal information for researchers as well as better preserve the body of work.

The partnership between the British Library and higher education libraries, led by Imperial College London will see the low-use research journals being stored at the British Library, with the scheme managed between the two institutions. The multi-million pound resource was awarded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) following an initial 18 month pilot scheme.

Commenting on the news Deborah Shorley, Director of Library Services, Imperial College London 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 to the UK’s research community.”

Once the five year scheme has been implemented, the programme will free up approximately 100km of shelf space which otherwise would have been used for journal storage. It is estimated this will amount to £29 million worth of capital savings for Universities allowing them to make use of the space for other purposes.

Once the project is implemented, researchers will be able to access the information in either print or electronic format from the British Library.

Dame Lynne Brindley DBE, Chief Executive, British Library said, “The award recognises our key role in supporting university libraries to meet the changing needs of researchers, and safeguarding research material for future access.”