For many university libraries, space shortage remains a major challenge, particularly balancing the need for increasing study space while some physical collections continue to grow. The HE sector has worked in partnership with the British Library (BL) since 2007 to manage print journals collaboratively through the UK Research Reserve (UKRR) programme funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to balance the need for increasing study space while some physical collections continue to grow. The community has worked together in creating and enhancing a national distributed collection so participating libraries can make informed decision about their print stock whilst ensuring continued access to print research material. The collaborative efforts on print, low-use journals have seen more than 107km of material being processed so far and achieved significant savings for the sector and releasing space for repurposing.
The National Monograph Steering Group (NMSG), comprised of representatives from RLUK, the British Library, Jisc, HEFCE, SCONUL and UKRR, was set up to seek answers to this and other relevant questions. After responding to the ITT issued by the NMSG last year, Information Power Ltd was selected to gather evidence and evaluate the community's appetite, if any, for a national monograph scheme. The report has now been published and can be downloaded at http://www.ukrr.ac.uk/resources/NMSG%20Feasibility%20Study%20final%20Jun%202017.pdf.
In the report, the authors report conversations with leaders in the UK as well as internationally to understand what makes a collaborative monograph scheme work, and what makes it fail. Information Power also conducted an in-depth literature review, an on-line survey, and recommended a model for the UK community at the end of the report.
The report sheds light on the potential monograph journey for the community; like UKRR for journals, whether the recommended model would work or not will depend on the support and commitment from the community.
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