Summary of Customer Service Updates

• BLDSS Customer Rollout – Update (May 2012)
• Ariel® Delivery (May 2012)
• Loan Renewals and Waiting Lists (April 2012)
• British Library Extended Search Services (April 2012)
• Inputting Orders on your Behalf (March 2012)
• Withdrawal of Delivery of Documents by Fax (March 2012)
• Are your contact details up-to-date? (March 2012)
• Public Holiday Closures (March 2012)
• Closure of the Integrated Catalogue (January 2012)
• British Library ARTEmail Format (January 2012)
• Default Copyright fees (January 2012)
• Withdrawal of Overseas Library Privilege Service (January 2012)
• Acquisition Policy Changes (January 2012)
• Chinese and Oriental Serial Titles (January 2012)
• Payment of your Account – Remittance Advice (January 2012)
• Revised Terms & Conditions for Document Supply (December 2011)
• Extended Search Service (November 2011)
• VAT Change (October 2011)
• Delays to Document Supply services – Update (October 2011)
• EThOS Update (October 2011)
• Catalogue Records Enhanced (June 2011)
• 2011/12 Prices (June 2011)
• Delays to Document Supply services – Update (June 2011)
• Delays to Document Supply services – Update (May 2011)
• Public Holidays Closures - Easter 2011 (April 2011)

• Delays to Document Supply services - Update (March 2011)
• Special Invitation-only preview of the new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS)
• Chasing Your Requests
• VAT Changes
• Reminder - Withdrawal of the Artiso Service
• Library Privilege Service
• Chasing a request
• Requesting via OCLC
• Returned loans
• ARTWeb users
• ARTEmail users
• Reminder of cancellation of requesting via ARTTel
• Cancellation of request by ARTel
• Withdrawal of 'Status' functionality of ARTEmail
• Requesting Title Page and Verso
• Using Automatch to help us process your requests more quickly
• Requesting copies in English only
• Withdrawal of the Artiso service
• Default copyright fees
• Easter opening hours
• Document Supply Ordering
• Christmas and New Year Opening Hours
• Request Status Reports
• PO Box 117 - Returned Loans Only
• ILL Claims and VAT Changes
• Extended Search Service
• Higher Education Scanning Service (HESS)
• ILL Claims – Changes to payments to suppliers
• Imaging Services Price Changes
• Retrospective Conversion of Card Catalogues
• Report Literature now available via Explore the British Library
• Request Status Reports
• Reply Codes
• Are your contact details up-to-date?
• Payment of your Account – Remittance Advice
• Formatting your requests
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys
• Collection Moves
• LOAN Message Keyword Code
• Contacting us by Telephone
• Higher Education Scanning Service (HESS) 
• Paying your invoices by credit card

BLDSS Customer Rollout – Update (May 2012)

As mentioned in previous customer updates, the British Library is at present rolling out its new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS).  BLDSS will affect almost every operational process in the Library, and will result in a more efficient, higher quality document supply service.

Phased implementation of BLDSS is currently underway and approximately 35% of all requests from ARTEmail and ARTWeb customers are now being processed via the new service.

This phased approach to deployment, and the gradual increase in volume of requests processed, has alerted us to technical problems which may not have been identified in a test environment or prior to customer feedback.  Unfortunately these issues have made it necessary to extend the roll-out period, which will also delay release of the online service, including the User Administration Interface.

Full deployment of BLDSS is now scheduled to be completed by the end of August. We appreciate that the delay may disappoint some of our customers but our priority is to ensure that, when available, the system is stable and operates robustly. A further update on the progress we are making will be issued at the end of June.

To ensure there is no restriction in access to our Document Supply collections during this delay we will resume adding legacy requests to waiting lists and will extend  loan periods on request (although there will be no automatic renewals).  In addition, customers who currently place manual orders via the Customer Services Orders Team, may wish to note that we will not implement the Order Inputting Administration charge until after the search and order interface is live.

Customer feedback throughout the deployment process has been invaluable and we are grateful for your patience whilst we work to resolve these issues. 

If you have any questions about BLDSS please contact our Customer Services team on 01937 546060 or at Customer-Services@bl.uk

Ariel® Delivery (May 2012)

As part of the implementation of the new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) we will be scanning all documents to be supplied electronically or by mail in colour as standard.

Colour scanning significantly increases file size and, whilst this is unlikely to create problems for those customers who receive Ariel delivery by FTP, those who receive Ariel by email may expect to encounter problems.

To help reduce file size, and reduce delivery failure, documents for delivery by Ariel email will be converted to greyscale prior to despatch. File sizes, however, are likely to continue to be larger than those scanned in black and white and we would recommend:

• Switching to Ariel delivery by FTP  to receive documents in colour
• Increasing restrictions on your mailbox to allow larger incoming files
• Advising your end users to similarly increase their mailbox file size
• For colour document delivery direct to your end user* consider switching to Secure Electronic Delivery, visit www.bl.uk/sed for further information

* Ariel delivery is only available to your organisation’s registered Ariel delivery address and may not be used in conjunction with an Alternative Delivery Address (ADD Address).

You can find out more about Ariel at Ariel@infotrieve.com

Loan Renewals and Waiting Lists (April 2012)

From 23 April 2012, to assist with migration to the new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) and the introduction of automated waiting lists, we will be unable to renew loan items requested through our legacy request processing systems.

We would be grateful if all loan items could be returned promptly to assist with this transition.

Additionally, as we fully deploy request processing to BLDSS, requests on legacy waiting lists will be cancelled and a notification sent to you. Should you still require the item, and wish to be added to the new waiting list in BLDSS, please reapply once you receive a CANC reply.

Also from 23 April 2012, we will stop adding legacy system requests to any waiting lists. Legacy system requests for items on loan will be returned to you advising that the item is unavailable and to reapply via BLDSS once your organisation has been deployed to the new service. We apologise for any inconvenience this may create for you.

British Library Extended Search Services (April 2012)

During March we announced that we would be offering an enhanced Extended Search Service as one of the benefits of our new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS).

As we deploy BLDSS, our existing Extended Search Service will be replaced with two new services – Get It For Me and Find It For Me.

Through Get It For Me (GIFM) we will try to source the item you require for one of our 3^rd party suppliers. The price of this service is made up of the British Library Service Charge (currently £8.50, 1560 JPY, €11, $13.80) plus the actual cost of the item (and any copyright charges) from the 3^rd party supplier. In most cases 3^rd party supplier costs are comparable to the BL’s document supply charges.

However, if you wish to stay in control of your costs then you may prefer to use our Find It For Me service (FIFM). Through this service we will, for a small charge of £4 (700 JPY €5.2, $6.5), look for the item for you and tell you where you can source it from.

To use these new services through ARTEmail, or your Library Management System, you will need to use a message keyword code to tell us which service you require.

To use Get It For Me, use the existing message keyword code BACKUP. For a location search only and to use Find It For Me please quote the message keyword code SL on the TX Header line of your requests.

During early summer 2012 these new Premium Services will also be available through our new search and order platform BLDSS. Until this time you may continue to request an extended search through the catalogue or ARTWeb order Form. 

All extended searches requested in this way by International customers will default to the Get It For Me Service. UK customers may use the Stock and Location search option for Find It For Me and the Stock, Locations and Worldwide option for Get It For Me.

Inputting Orders on your Behalf (March 2012)

From 31 May 2012, we will be making an administration charge of £2.25 (USD3.6, EUR2.7 or JPY485) per request when we search for, and order, an item for remote supply on your behalf. This administration charge will be in addition to the document delivery charges and replaces the existing Faxline and Easy Order Services.

To reduce costs, and not incur administration charges, existing users of these services may prefer to switch to one of our automated requesting methods. Requests reach the British Library within minutes of being ordered and are streamed directly to the relevant storage area eliminating the possibility of any delays to processing. Orders can be placed for the 2 and 24 hour delivery options as well as the standard service.

Customers may also use our online order form ARTWeb and the blank order form accessible from Explore the BL until our new Online Ordering Interface  is released.

Please contact Customer Services if you require any further information.

Withdrawal of Delivery of Documents by Fax (March 2012)

From 01 May 2012, we will no longer offer delivery of documents by Fax. This is due to the rising costs of the supporting infrastructure of faxing documents as customers have gradually migrated to electronic delivery options. Please click here for further details of alternative delivery mechanisms or to discuss your specific requirements, please contact Customer Services.

Any requests received asking for Fax delivery will be returned to you asking for an alternative delivery method.

Are your contact details up-to-date? (March 2012)

To help ensure that your account and contact information is up-to-date and that you do not miss out on any important information about your account or British Library services, please tell us as soon as possible if there are any changes to your postal address, email address or contact details.

Correct contact information is particularly vital at this time as we near the roll out of the new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) to all of our customers.

To check, or change your Document Supply contact information, please email details to Customer Services Accounts or telephone +44 (0)1937 54655.   

The British Library is committed to protecting your privacy. We will only use your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Public Holiday Closures

Click here for details of forthcoming Public Holiday Closures.

Closure of the Integrated Catalogue (January 2012)

The Library's Integrated Catalogue has now been replaced by Explore the British Library. The new search facility gives improved access to around 57 million records for items held in the Library.

Explore the British Library allows users to search both the British Library’s website and a large amount of the items available to customers from the collections including books, journal titles and articles, maps, sound recordings, research databases, archived websites, newspaper titles, trade journals and images.

If you have bookmarked http://catalogue.bl.uk you may wish to amend it to http://explore.bl.uk.

British Library ARTEmail Format (January 2012)

As we begin to deploy the new Brtitish Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) we have become aware that the format of many of our customers ARTemail requests do not conform to current  guidelines.  In order for you to benefit from the enhancements which will be delivered by the new service, and to reduce the risk of failures, we would like to remind customers of our published ARTEmail standard, and the need to conform fully to these standards.

Please compare your current ARTEmail format to the standard, and if your current format strays from the standard, it’s imperative you change the format of your ARTEmail request files  to match the standard. Formatting errors in future  may result in rejected orders.

We have noted these issues that will cause requests to be rejected or incorrectly processed by BLDSS:

• Customer Code and ART password quoted in the incorrect order; The first line of the ART file should always be the Customer Code number and the second line the ART password:

• Incorrect ADD Address format; A file received with a line of text between the ADD Address command line and the delivery email address will not be able to be delivered:

* (without the blank lines seen)

• Conflicting Message Keyword Codes; One delivery method or search level per request should be quoted. ART requests containing both PHOTO and SED99, or S and SL should not be sent:

• Request number formats; Customer reference numbers should contain no spaces as it can cause the characters after the space to be lost from the customer reference:

 * (without the blank lines seen)

• Redundant and inaccurate Message Keyword Codes (MKC) on TX line; Our Handbook and Guide to ARTEmail contain lists of all current valid codes. Inaccurately quoted or redundant codes may cause the request to be rejected. Inaccurate and redundant codes include:

• Extreme deviations from our published Preferred Order of Bibliographic Detail; All new requests are matched against stock holdings. The better a request meets our preferred order (in full in the Guide to ARTEmail), the more chance we have of matching it accurately against the correct shelfmark:

* (without the blank lines seen)

Submission of requests in the standard format will enable us to provide you with a better, quicker and more accurate service from us – but more importantly, fewer failures on some of your requests which we could have fulfilled.

If you require further information on this issue, please contact Customer Services.

Default Copyright fees (January 2012)

The Copyright Licensing Agency, CLA, default copyright fee for books and other non-serial material increased from £10.50 to £12.00 on 1 January 2012.  The new charges will apply to copyright fee paid copies supplied from this date.

Withdrawal of Overseas Library Privilege Service (January 2012)

We would like to remind our overseas non commercial customers that the Overseas Library Privilege service was withdrawn on the 31st December 2011 and that all article requests supplied on existing accounts will now incur copyright charges at the full commercial rate. You can search for copyright fees via Explore the British Library at http://explore.bl.uk.  The copyright fee will be displayed as ‘Rights’ in the ‘Details’ section of the item you search. Where CLAX (copyright licensing agency excluded) or ‘British Library Not Licensed to Copy’ appears, our licence does not permit us to supply a copyright fee paid copy. However, CLAX items are available via our loan service.

Academic and Government non-commercial organisations may wish to take advantage of our new International Non-Commercial Document Supply (INCD) service which offers overseas non-commercial users the ability to access articles for private study or non-commercial research purposes at a reduced royalty fee. Registration for the service is optional and terms and conditions apply. Please visit our website for more information or contact the British Library Customer Services.

Acquisition Policy Changes (January 2012)

As budgetary restrictions begin to impact on our monograph acquisition budget customers may begin to see an increasing number of NPUR (we do not have this item and have decided not to buy it) responses to failed requests.

A redefinition of acquisition guidelines to reduce expenditure unfortunately means we will no longer be able to routinely consider failed requests for purchase.  We will however continue to purchase high demand items and continue to add on order information to our catalogue and maintain waiting lists for on order items.

If you receive an NPUR response, and are unable to source the item elsewhere, it is worthwhile to keep checking our catalogue for availability.

Chinese and Oriental Serial Titles (January 2012)

Historically we have been unable to supply copyright fee paid copies of titles published in China as they are excluded from our CLA Licence and our catalogue records show them as CLAX (copyright licensing agency excluded).  

The CLAX status for Chinese titles can be ignored as we now have a separate licence agreement with CAOD (Chinese and Oriental Database) that allows us to supply scan on demand article copies from all Chinese serials. The copyright fee for all titles is £9.00.  The database also gives us access to Chinese publications not listed on our catalogue, so we would encourage speculative requests for this type of material.

We hope to be able to update our catalogue records to reflect title availability in due course.

Payment of your Account – Remittance Advice (January 2012)

To help us quickly and accurately process payments against your account and ensure continuity of service, please return your remittance advice direct to finance-receipts@bl.uk, or by mail to:

The British Library
Finance Receipts
Boston Spa
Wetherby
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom

Revised Terms & Conditions for Document Supply (December 2011) 

Due to changes in the legal framework through which the British Library Document Supply Service is provided, our Terms and Conditions for Document Supply (“Terms”) will be changing with effect from 1 January 2012. These new Terms will apply to any documents we supply to you from that date and if you do not wish to abide by our new Terms, you should not use The British Library Document Supply Service after 31 December 2011.

You can view the complete Terms here, but a brief summary of the changes are listed below:

• New wording to cover the re-sale or re-supply of documents to third parties
• New sections to cover confidentiality and our obligations under the Freedom Of Information Act
• Wording to explain payment terms and our rights where these are not met
• Addition of standard legal provisions e.g. liability and exclusions

If your organisation has signed a separate agreement with us for the supply of documents, its terms and conditions will continue to apply to any documents you request under such agreement.

If you need any further information on this letter, or wish to discuss the changes to the Terms, please contact the British Library Customer Services.

Extended Search Service (November 2011)

From 1^st December 2011 we will be making some small changes to our existing Extended Search Service in readiness for deployment of the new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS).

International Customers:

Extended search requests for loan items not held in our collection will be returned to you quoting details of libraries in the UK that may hold the item and be willing to lend it to you.  We will no longer forward your requests to UK libraries on your behalf.

Alternative supplier details will be given as a Library Code. The Directory of Library Codes enables British Library customers to convert these codes into full library contact details. Using this information you may then approach the holding library directly. Please ensure that you find out and agree to the supplying library’s charges before placing a firm order.

When confirming your order with the supplying library you will need to send them details of your British Library code and a unique reference number. The supplying library will claim the agreed charges for supplying the item to you by submitting a claim to the British Library. We will charge the agreed amount to your account and reimburse the supplying library.

UK 3^rd Party ILL Suppliers:

From 1^st December 2011 you may claim the agreed amount for supplying loans to British Library Document Supply Service overseas account holders.  You will need to agree charges with them in advance of supply and obtain details of their British Library customer code and a unique reference number.

Claims for items supplied to international customers may be included as part of your routine ILL Claim. Please use our online claim form to submit your claim.

VAT Change (October 2011)

With effect from 1 October 2011, following advice received, the sale of photocopied printed matter (excluding abstracts) by the British Library’s Document Supply Service will be treated as zero-rated for VAT purposes. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the British Library Customer Services Department: customer-services@bl.uk +44 (0)1937 546060

Delays to Document Supply services – Update (October 2011)

Further to the update we provided in August, access to some of the collection items held at the Library’s Boston Spa site continues to be restricted following the discovery of small traces of asbestos in some areas.

All air sampling tests have found there to be no health risk – however, the Library continues to take sensible and responsible precautions to ensure the health and safety of Readers, users and staff, in full compliance with the very strict health and safety regulations applying to the management of asbestos.

Although some areas of the Boston Spa site remain closed, leading to unavailability of items, a major programme of asbestos removal and management has been ongoing since February. Our priority has been to get the higher use collection items back in service as quickly as possible.

We’re pleased to announce the cleaning of the most heavily used current serials and monographs stock (1985-present) is now complete, and that overall fulfilment has gone up from 65% to 71%.

Following discussions with DCMS, funding for the bulk of the programme has now been confirmed. Work to clear other areas is being done in sections, so more of the remaining affected material will become available as this work proceeds - however, some low use items will continue to be unavailable into next year.

Interim measures to complete customer orders from alternative sources remain in place – in particular fulfilling requests from e-journal resources where licences for document supply are held, and making greater use of duplicates in our London stock.  

We wish to thank customers for their continuing patience while we deal with this substantial challenge – please be assured that we are making every effort to make stock from the affected areas available again as soon as possible.

Please cascade this information to colleagues as appropriate. Please also continue placing orders as usual, and you will be informed if you need to reapply for your requested item at a later date.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the British Library Customer Services Department: customer-services@bl.uk +44 (0)1937 546060

EThOS Update (October 2011)

At the start of 2011 EThOS, the UK E-Theses Online Service, moved to become a shared service delivered by the British Library on behalf of Higher Education. A new Governing Board was set up, and a new business model developed to bring improvements and enhancements to the current service.

The new membership business model is now being rolled out, and all participating institutions should recently have received detailed information and a revised Member Agreement.

In the meantime, EThOS continues to deliver great results: over 52,000 full-text theses are now available for immediate free download, and 300,000 records of UK doctoral theses available for searching. Links can also take the user direct to an open access copy held at the institution’s own repository, and an ordering system in many cases allows the user to request a digital copy of an older, paper thesis. Over 350,000 copies have been downloaded since the launch of EThOS: in September alone theses were downloaded by users in 190 countries.

Catalogue Records Enhanced (June 2011)

In readiness for the launch of our new British Library Document Supply Service the British Library Catalogue is being enhanced. This data will enable improved matching of requests, in addition to faster and more accurate responses to orders. It also distinguishes between reference and document supply collections, providing customers with more accurate information regarding the availability of items for document supply.

Customers may start to notice the following additional information on catalogue records:

Available for Reading Rooms Only   
Available for Remote Supply    
Remote Supply - Home Loan Ban    
Remote Supply - Surrogate only
DSC Temporary Loan Ban  
          
N.B. Please note, in light of the recent changes to our Copyright Fee Paid Service, to enable customers to maximise the use of our Loan service the 6 month loan ban on all publications is currently suspended.

2011/12 Document Supply Prices (June 2011)

2011/12 Document Supply Prices are now available. Click here for further details.

Code of Service

The Library's Code of Service sets out our service commitments to customers including our targets for email responses.

We aim to respond to all written general enquiries within 10 days of receipt and give priority to Document Supply order queries, where our target is to respond within 24 hours. To help us ensure order queries are responded to within this timescale please quote your request number in the subject line of the email.

If you have not had a reply to a standard service request after one week, you may ask us for a progress report by resubmitting your original request using the Message Keyword Code CHASER after the original request number, or selecting ‘Chaser’ from the options on the ARTWeb order form.  

Copyright Fee Paid Service (April 2011)

From 1 April 2011, where we don’t have a direct licence with a publisher, our Licence covering the provision of copyright fee paid copies from print items has changed. This change restricts the provision of copyright fee paid copies from items according to country of publication.  Regrettably this will reduce the amount of material that can be copied for commercial document supply customers, or be supplied in response to copyright fee paid requests from our non commercial customers.

Where applicable, if we are unable to supply a copyright fee paid copy we will offer you the alternative of reapplying for a loan copy.  In these instances you will be given the Reply Code RCOP – LOAN?  To enable customers to maximise the use of our Loan service we will be suspending the 6 month loan ban on all publications.

Our Licence also restricts the supply of items published in France by electronic document delivery methods.  Requests for electronic delivery will be returned to you inviting you to reapply for a mail, fax or loan copy. The Reply Code we will send you is RCOP – MAIL/FAX/LOAN?

The supply of copyright fee paid copies from publications where we have a direct licence with the publisher and copies supplied via our library privilege service remain unaffected.  We continue to work with Publishers and other Reproduction Rights Organisations to increase direct licensing agreements and minimise the impact of these changes to our customers.   

LONDON Reply Code

Due to the temporary closure of some areas of the Boston Spa site we are making extended use of our London collections to fulfil your requests. The increased numbers of document supply requests we are now routing to London is inevitably impacting on our speed of service.

To ensure you are kept informed of the progress of your requests we will use the interim reply code LONDON if we feel that there may be a delay in our response times.

Delays to Document Supply services – Update (June 2011)

Further to the update we provided in May, access to some of the collection items held at the Library's Boston Spa site continues to be restricted following the discovery of small traces of asbestos in some areas.

All air sampling tests have found there to be no health risk - however, the Library continues to take sensible and responsible precautions to ensure the health and safety of Readers, users and staff, in full compliance with the very strict health and safety regulations applying to the management of asbestos.

Although some areas of the Boston Spa site remain closed, leading to unavailability of items, a major programme of asbestos removal and management has been ongoing since February. Our priority has been to get the higher use collection items back in service as quickly as possible.

The cleaning of 11.5km of the most heavily used current serials stock (1985-present), which accounts for 55% of the affected document supply orders, was completed at the end of May. Work on cleaning the current monographs stock, the next most heavily used content, began earlier this month and is expected to be completed by August. The bulk of the programme as a whole is expected to be completed by the end of 2011, although some low use items will continue to be affected into next year.

As an interim solution, we have introduced a number of initiatives to complete customer orders from alternative sources - in particular fulfilling requests from e-journal resources where licences for document supply are held, and making greater use of duplicates in our London stock.

We wish to thank customers for their continuing patience while we deal with this substantial challenge - please be assured that we are making every effort to make stock from the affected areas available again as soon as possible.

Please cascade this information to colleagues as appropriate. Please also continue placing orders as usual, and you will be informed if you need to reapply for your requested item at a later date.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the British Library Customer Services Department: customer-services@bl.uk +44 (0)1937 546060

Delays to Document Supply services – Update (May 2011)

Further to the update we provided in March, access to some of the collection items held at the Library’s Boston Spa site continues to be restricted following the discovery of small traces of asbestos in some areas.

All air sampling tests have found there to be no health risk – however, the Library continues to take sensible and responsible precautions to ensure the health and safety of Readers, users and staff, in full compliance with the very strict health and safety regulations applying to the management of asbestos.

Although some areas of the Boston Spa site remain closed, leading to unavailability of items, a major programme of asbestos removal and management has been ongoing since February. Our priority has been to get the higher use collection items back in service as quickly as possible.

The cleaning of 11.5km of the most heavily used current serials stock (1985-present), which accounts for 55% of the affected document supply orders, will be completed by the end of May. Work on cleaning the current monographs stock, the next most heavily used content, will start in June. The bulk of the programme is expected to be completed by the end of 2011, although some low use items will continue to be affected into next year.

As an interim solution, we have introduced a number of initiatives to complete customer orders from alternative sources – in particular fulfilling requests from e-journal resources where licences for document supply are held, and making greater use of duplicates in our London stock.

We wish to thank customers for their continuing patience while we deal with this substantial challenge – please be assured that we are making every effort to make stock from the affected areas available again as soon as possible.

Please continue placing orders as usual, and you will be informed if you need to reapply for your requested item at a later date.

To reduce the number of reapplications being sent to customers and ensure orders are completed as efficiently as possible, any standard requests for stock which is due to be back in service within the next week will be sent the reply BDG*CHECK. This is to allow a final preservation check of stock before it is made available. Please note that 2 and 24 hour requests will continue to be advised to reapply.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the British Library Customer Services Department: customer-services@bl.uk +44 (0)1937 546060

Public Holidays Closures - Easter 2011 (April 2011)

• All Document Supply services will be closed on Friday 22 April and Monday 25 April, also on 29 April and 02 May
• The Boston Spa Reading Room will close at 16:30 on Thursday 21 April and Thursday April 28, re-opening at 09:00 on Tuesday 26 April and 03 May

Easter:

Closed – 00:00 on 22 April – 08:00 on 26 April (UK time)

• We will not process any requests received after 22:00 (UK time) on Thursday 21 April until our document supply service reopens on Tuesday 26 April at 08:00 (UK time). This includes any requests for the 2 hour service.
• Any 2 hour or 24 hour requests received at the British Library after 22:00 on 21 April will be timed from 08:00 on 26 April.

Public holiday:

Closed – 04:00 on 29 April – 08:00 on 3 May (UK time)

• We will not process any requests received after 04:00 (UK time) on Friday 29 April until our document supply service reopens on Tuesday 03 May at 08:00 (UK time). This includes any requests for the 2 hour service.
• Any 2 hour or 24 hour requests received at the British Library after 04:00 on 29 April will be timed from 08:00 on 03 May.

Delays to Document Supply services - Update (March 2011)

As reported in January, access to some of the collection items held at the Library’s Boston Spa site has been affected by the discovery of small traces of asbestos in some areas.

All air sampling tests have found there to be no health risk – however, the Library is taking sensible and responsible precautions to ensure the health and safety of Readers, users and staff, in full compliance with the very strict health and safety regulations applying to the management of asbestos.

Consequently, some areas of the Boston Spa site have been closed temporarily, leading to unavailability of items.

A major programme of asbestos removal and management is now underway.

Although this is expected to last for much of 2011, our priority is to get higher use collection items back in service as quickly as possible, with some of the most heavily-used material now scheduled to be back in use by mid-April.

As an interim solution, we have introduced a number of initiatives to complete customer orders from alternative sources – in particular fulfilling requests from e-journal resources where licences for document supply are held, and making greater use of duplicates in our London stock.

We would ask you to continue placing orders as usual, and you will be informed if you will need to reapply for your requested item at a later date.

Special Invitation-only preview of the new British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS)

Taking over 2 years to develop and impacting almost every operational process in the Library, BLDSS will deliver a more efficient, higher quality document supply service that will develop as quickly as your needs do in future years. Our preview events will give you a full overview of what you can expect from the new service, outline how it can improve efficiency at your library and includes the first public demonstration of our new customer interface. We'll also be running guided tours of the facility to show you how BLDSS has impacted everything we do.

The two sessions will be held in the British Library Document Supply Centre in Boston Spa, on Wednesday 6th April, 1430-1700; and Thursday 7th April, 10.30-1330 and we will be providing transport to and from Harrogate International Centre on Wednesday and to and from York station on Thursday.

If you would like to attend, please email marketing@bl.uk indicating how many people will be attending, their name(s), which session, and where you would prefer to be collected from. Please see below for an agenda. Please note that spaces are strictly limited and will be allocated on a 'first-come' basis.

Wednesday 6th April Agenda

Thursday 7th April Agenda - NO PLACES LEFT

Chasing Your Requests

We aim to supply 95% of standard service requests within 5 days and consistently achieve, or better, this target.  If you have not received, or had a response to your request, after 5 working days then please submit a chaser.  Full details on how to chase can be found in our Customer Handbook.

VAT Changes

The standard rate of VAT is currently 17.5% but will be increased to 20% on 4 January 2011.  This new rate of VAT will be applied to charges for standard rated Document Supply items supplied on and after 4 January.

Please ensure that ILL claims for items supplied during December are submitted to us promptly to ensure VAT is charged at the correct rate.

Claims should clearly show the period to which it relates in the reference field.

Reminder - Withdrawal of the Artiso Service

From 1 January 2011 The British Library will no longer accept requests via our ISO/ILL gateway, Artiso.

Artiso is being discontinued because it is little used, is expensive to support, is inflexible to change and ISOILL has not emerged and grown in the way the library community anticipated.

VDX users, we hope, will have already moved to its ARTEmail protocol for sending orders rather than use its ISOILL functionality. 99% of VDX users use ARTEmail to send orders to the British Library and it is a very well tried and tested protocol.

To discuss transition from Artiso to ARTEmail please contact Brian Sherwood in Customer Services on +44 (0) 1937 546699 or email Customer-Services@bl.uk

Library Privilege Service

We would like to remind non commercial customers accessing our collection through our Library Privilege Service of their obligations when using this service:

• The user must sign an English language declaration form, stating that the document is to be used for a non-commercial research purpose or for private study
• The ordering library must collect and keep the signed declaration forms for 6 years plus the current year, which we will audit as required
• If a copy is required for a commercial purpose or the user cannot comply with the copyright restrictions, then a licensed copy must be made and a copyright fee is then payable.

Full details of your responsibilities when using this service may be found in our terms and conditions of supply. Customers located outside the UK should also note our right to request access to declaration forms held by you as part of our audit procedures.

Chasing a request

If you have not had a reply to a standard service request after one week, you may ask us for a progress report by resubmitting your original request using the Message Keyword Code CHASER after the original request number, or selecting ‘Chaser’ from the options on the ARTWeb order form.

Chaser requests are routed to our Customer Services Team to investigate why you have not received a reply to your original request. As part of our investigations we often find some of these requests are not chasers; they may be new requests, reapplications or general queries, which causes delay to the processing of genuine chaser requests. Please only use the Chaser option for requests to which you have not had a response; any queries related to your requests should be sent to Customer Services.

Requesting via OCLC

We would like to remind customers requesting items from the British Library’s collections via OCLC that we are unable to deliver items by Odyssey. To avoid unnecessary delays when requesting from the British Library (BRI), please quote your Ariel delivery address before the Odyssey address when placing your order.

Also we would like to remind those using Max Cost to ensure that the minimum amount entered is at least equal to our service charges, plus copyright fee if applicable. Details of our service charges may be found here. Please also remember to include your British Library customer code on all requests.

If a requested item is on loan, or temporarily unavailable, we are unable to add requests made via OCLC to our waiting lists, as the OCLC system functionality does not support this. Should you wish to wait for an item that we tell you is unavailable, please order direct from the British Library using our online ARTWeb order form. Similarly, please order via this route if you wish us to carry out an extended search for alternative UK locations for items not held in our collection.

Satisfied requests should be receipted on OCLC as soon as items are received from us. However, in most cases, we do not update your request as shipped until the day following despatch. Any items not receipted within 10 days of despatch to you will be charged direct to your British Library Document Supply account.

For any queries with OCLC requesting please contact Customer Services.

Returned loans

If we send you the DUE or Automatic Renewal Pending Reply Code for an item that you have already returned, or if you receive the Reply Code FINAL DEMAND, you must take action.

ARTWeb users

• Fill in the Customer Details section as normal
• In the ‘Request Number’ box, add the number given to the original request
• Complete the bibliographic details as normal
• Choose whichever is applicable from ‘DUE Response’ or ‘DUE WAIT Response’ from the options under ‘Reapplications, Chasers, Renewals etc’ at the bottom of the Delivery Options section.
• Submit the request.

ARTEmail users

• After ‘TX’ quote the request number on which the item is currently borrowed, followed by the Message Keyword Code RECALL and the Reply Code we have sent you
• Add your message as the next line of text;

       e.g. TXDAF12345 LOAN RECALL DUE (or RECALL DUE WAIT)

       This was returned 25/01/03 (or an alternative explanation)

• Follow this with the full bibliographic details and retransmit your request.

Reminder of cancellation of requesting via ARTTel

We would like to remind ARTTel users that the service will close on 31 January 2011. If you have not explored alternative routes, we advise you to do so now to ensure that there will be no break in service.

ARTEmail is the natural alternative to ARTTel. Instead of connecting to our host computer system, you type or paste your ART file into the body of a Plain Text format email message and sent it to a designated address. The first two lines of the file must be your Customer Code number and ART Password, which are optional on ARTTel. Full details on using ARTEmail are found in our ART Guide, downloadable here.

For occasions when you have only a few requests to send, we recommend ARTWeb. A simple web order form, it allows all orders to be sent on a one-at-a-time basis.  You may use it in conjunction with any other requesting method. We will be bringing new requesting methods online in 2011, but we urge you to explore the existing alternatives now.

For further information, or to discuss the transition from ARTTel to another route, please contact Brian Sherwood in Customer Services on +44 (0) 1937 882430 or by email: dsc-art-liaison@bl.uk

Cancellation of requesting by ARTTel

After more than 30 years of service, we are cancelling ARTTel as a requesting method on 1 February 2011.

From then onwards, ART format requests must be sent by ARTEmail.

ARTTel is being discontinued as we look to introduce new requesting methods in 2011. Part of the development programme is to rationalise some existing routes to allow the remaining ones to be more easily supported on new platforms.We hope that by giving over eight months' notice of our decision it will allow you sufficient time to make alternative arrangements and that the service you receive from the British Library will be uninterrupted.

ARTEmail is the natural alternative to ARTTel. Instead of connecting to our host computer system, you type or paste your ART file into the body of a Plain Text format email message and sent it to a designated address. The first two lines of the file must be your Customer Code number and ART Password, which are optional on ARTTel.

Full details on using ARTEmail are found in our ARTGuide, downloadable here.

For occasions when you have only a few requests to send, we recommend ARTWeb. A simple web ordering template, it allows all orders to be sent on a one-at-a-time basis. You may use it in conjunction with any other requesting method.

The cancellation of ARTTel means that intray via ARTTel will no longer be an option. Until we offer full online tracking we recommend ARTEmail Replies Intray. At any time, or times of day set by you, we send you numbered intray messages, containing replies to requests made since the previous intray.

Withdrawal of 'Status' functionality of ARTEmail

From 1 January 2011 customers will no longer be able to use the Status functionality of ARTEmail. In conjunction with new services being introduced in 2011, ARTEmail is moving to a new platform. The little used Status functionality will no longer be available. However, we will be offering full online tracking of orders from start to end, which will make the Status function obsolete. (Status should not be confused with Intray. Intray continues unaffected. Only the ability to obtain details of files of requests sent to ARTEmail during the previous month is affected).

For further information, or to discuss the transition from ARTTel to ARTEmail or other requesting methods please contact Brian Sherwood in Customer Services on +44 (0) 1937 882430 or by email: dsc-art-liaison@bl.uk

Requesting Title Page and Verso

When requesting copies of journal articles that also require a copy of the title page and verso, please state this immediately after the page numbers that you require to ensure that we include this request.

Using Automatch to help us process your requests more quickly

To help speed up the processing of requests, British Library uses its own 'Automatch' software to automatically read requests as they arrive and attempt to route them to the correct storage area for supply. If bibliographic details are quoted accurately and in our preferred order, your requests will be automatically sorted and routed to the correct part of the library. However, if our software is unable to locate the item from the way in which the bibliographic information has been cited or formatted, your requests will be routed for a manual check and a delay occurs.

Tests show that our software’s performance is enhanced if the volume number, part number and page numbers of the requested item are prefixed by certain codes. Our online order forms already add the required codes, but it would be helpful if customers who use ARTTel and ARTEmail could quote their bibliographic details in our preferred way:

• Please prefix the volume number with 'VOL' followed by a single space; Prefix the part number with 'PT' followed by a single space and prefix the page numbers with 'PP' followed by a space. Ideally, all this information should be on one line as in the following example:
  2002 VOL 55 PT 13 PP 1076-1090
• The publication title should always be quoted as the first line of bibliographic detail.

Please avoid the use of abbreviations and include author details whenever possible. The most common reasons for failure of our matching software are:

• Title not in title field. We get a range of things here instead, such as a request number, the author's name e.g. Enrique Vidal, the end-user's name or an instruction such as CHASER
• Title abbreviated e.g. J (journal), Bltn (bulletin), Adv (advances), Rept (report); Chem Soc (Chemical Society), Env Sci (environmental science)
• Words omitted from the title
• Inclusion of accent marks or diacriticals
• Spelling mistakes
• Acronyms e.g. IUCN, IMO
• A description of the item instead of an actual title e.g. Paper presented at the 5th International Congress on...
• Full stops and commas.

Our systems are not case-sensitive so either may be used.

For more information on formatting your requests correctly download our ARTguide or contact Customer Services to discuss

Requesting copies of articles in English only

Our Document Supply periodicals collection includes all material likely to be used by research, industry and higher education (undergraduate level and above), regardless of subject or language.  We hold journal titles in most European languages as well as those in Oriental or Slavonic languages.

When requesting articles from foreign language publications you must tell us at the time of order if you wish us to only supply the article if it is in English.

To specify that an English language translation is essential, please use the message keyword code TRANSON when sending your request to us by ARTEmail or ARTTel.

If using the ARTWeb order form, please select the instruction Translation Only.   

Where English is preferred but not essential, please either use the message keyword code TRANSIP or select Translation Preferred when completing the order form.

Withdrawal of the Artiso service

From 1 January 2011 The British Library will no longer accept requests via our ISOILL gateway, Artiso.

Artiso is being discontinued as we look to introduce new requesting methods in 2011. Part of the development programme is to rationalise some existing routes to allow the remaining ones to be more easily supported on new platforms.

We hope that by giving 10 months notice of our decision it will allow our users sufficient time to make alternative arrangements and the service you receive from The British Library will not be interrupted. VDX users, we hope will be able to move to the ARTEmail protocol for sending orders rather than use its ISOILL functionality. 99% of VDX users use ARTEmail to send orders to The British Library and it is a tried and tested protocol.

To discuss transition from Artiso to ARTEmail please contact Brian Sherwood in Customer Services on +44 (0) 1937 546699 or email Customer-Services@bl.uk

Default copyright fees

The Copyright Licensing Agency, CLA, default copyright fee for books and other non-serial material will increase from £6 to £9 on 1 April 2010. The new charges will apply to copyright fee paid copies supplied from this date.

Easter opening hours

All Document Supply services will be closed from 22:00 on Thursday 1 April until 08.00 on Tuesday 6 April.  For full details of how this will impact on Document Supply services please visit our opening hours page

The Boston Spa Reading Room will close at 16:30 on Thursday 1 April.  

Document Supply Ordering 

The Document Supply Service is available to process your automated* requests from 08:00 Monday to 04:30 Saturday, except when closed for public holidays.

Customer Services Orders are available to accept any 2hr and 24hr requests by email, fax or telephone, during our core business hours of 08:00 to 18:30 each day, Monday through to Friday.  Any orders received by the team outside of these hours, will be timed from 08:00 the next working day.  Requests for items urgently required during the period 18:30 to 08:00 should be made by one of our automated methods of ordering.

*Automated requesting methods interface directly into our request processing and delivery systems and include ARTTel, ARTemail, Inside, British Library Direct, British Library Direct Plus, the Explore the British Library and the ARTWeb form.  For more information on any of our requesting methods please contact customer-services@bl.uk

Christmas and New Year Opening Hours

All Document Supply Services will be closed from 15:00 on Wednesday 23 December until 08:00 on Tuesday 29 December and also on Friday 1 January.  For full details of how this will impact on Document Supply Services please visit our opening hours website

The Boston Spa Reading Room will close at 15:00 on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 31 December.  Latest admittance to the Reading Room will be 14:00 on both days.

Request Status Reports

We wish to remind the small number of customers who continue to receive replies to requests by post that these will de discontinued from 1 January 2010 and recommend that you switch now to Replies Intray, which is available by email or online through ARTTel.

The ARTTel Replies Intray is updated every few minutes, giving you instant access to the status of your orders.  If you opt to receive your replies by email, we will send you a message listing your replies every day (except weekends) at a time (or times) specified by you.  Please email dsc-art-liaison@bl.uk or call + 44 (0) 1937 546699 if you want to arrange this.

PO Box 117 – Returned Loans Only 

May we remind customers that only items being returned from loan should be sent to PO Box 117; do not use the address label included with loans to send any other correspondence to the British Library. It is especially important that you do not return wrong items to this address, as their processing may be considerably delayed. These should be addressed for the attention of Customer Services, clearly marked Wrong Item and returned to the address below:

The British Library
Customer Services/Wrong Item
Boston Spa
WETHERBY
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom

ILL Claims and VAT Changes 

The rate of VAT will change from 15% to 17.5% from 1 January 2010. Please ensure that ILL claims for items supplied during December are submitted to us promptly to ensure VAT is charged at the correct rate.

Claims should clearly show the period to which it relates in the reference field.

Extended Search Service 

As well as checking our own extensive collection, we can also:

• Give you details of alternative locations to which you can apply direct
• Apply to international libraries on your behalf (UK and Irish customers only)
• Apply to other UK and Irish libraries on your behalf (International customers only)

Extended searches are only available for standard delivery requests, not for 2 or 24 hour delivery, and a search fee is charged even if we find no alternative supplier or location. This fee is in addition to any copying or loan charge the supplier may make if the request is satisfied.

Increasingly alternative locations may be notified to you in the form of a URL from which you may be able to obtain the requested item. Wherever possible we will send details of the URL to you by email to your delivery email address. In cases where we do not have a delivery email address we will send this information to your organisation’s contact email address.

Please contact Customer-Services-Accounts@bl.uk if you wish to check or update your details.

Full details on how to request an extended search may be found on our website in Section 13 of our General Customer Handbook 

Higher Education Scanning Service (HESS) 

Please can we remind users of the Higher Education Scanning Service that we are only able to supply unencrypted PDF copies of items for inclusion in electronic course packs, from stock held in the British Library collections. We are unable to offer the extended search service for unencrypted supply.

ILL Claims – Changes to payments to suppliers 

The Library is no longer able to make payments to suppliers by GBP cheque and the only methods of payment available for ILL Claims are through a Document Supply account or by BACS (Bankers Automated Clearing Services).

If you normally ask for payment by cheque we will be contacting you to request bank details to facilitate payment.

Imaging Services Price Changes 

For customers who use our Imaging Services from St Pancras, revised pricing will become effective from 1 August 2009. Full details can be found on our website 

As announced in May 2009 revised Document Supply prices also come into effect on 1 August 2009. 

Retrospective Conversion of Card Catalogues 

Music to your ears?

Records of the Union Catalogue of Music are now accessible via the British Library Explore the British Library.

• 135,758 new holdings added to the catalogue
• 3,643 UCM holdings have been merged with existing records from the London Music reference collection
• 3,579 duplicate records were discarded.

Items in the Boston Spa Music collection can now be ordered online in the usual way.

The significant feature of DSC Music is that this collection is available for loan. To facilitate this, a new subset - Document Supply Music - has been created on the British Library Explore the British Library. This will enable loan material to be readily identified as distinct from those in the London Music reference collection.

Despite this enormous addition to music material that is searchable on the Catalogue, we are still encouraging customers to make ‘speculative’ requests. This is because there are a large amount of materials bound into collections for which there are currently no catalogue entries, but can be found by staff if requested.

Report Literature now available via the British Library Explore the British Library 

Much hard-to-find material – sometimes known as grey literature* - is now accessible via the British Library Explore the British Library (BLIC). 48,238 reports records from the DSC British Reports catalogue (BRTT – British Reports, Translations and Theses) have been loaded on to BLIC. Following that, 74,581 official publications were converted from the original card catalogue entries:

• British 33,848
• Foreign 13,389
• United States 7,232
• Intergovernmental 20,112

The addition of this material to the Catalogue is to be welcomed as it will enable the discovery of much obscure but vital research materials, all of which is available for loan.

* Grey Literature – mainly report literature not issued through the regular publishing channels or privately published in small print runs. Hard to trace because of poor bibliographic control, it usually originates from societies, government departments, research institutes, university departments etc.

Request Status Reports 

We wish to advise the small number of customers who continue to receive replies to requests by post that we plan to phase out postal Request Status Reports during 2009. The equipment we use to produce these reports is outdated, costly to maintain and is becoming increasingly unreliable.

Instead of waiting to receive reports in the post, we recommend that you switch now to Replies Intray, which is available by email or online through ARTTel. The ARTTel Replies Intray is updated every few minutes, giving you instant access to the status of your orders. If you opt to receive your replies by email, we will send you a message listing your replies every day (except weekends) at a time (or times) specified by you. Please email dsc-art-liaison@bl.uk or call + 44 (0) 1937 546699 if you want to arrange this.

Reply Codes 

A few customers have contacted us recently to ask where they can find the full list of codes that we use when replying to your requests. Bookmark the complete list of codes and replies here

Are your contact details up-to-date? 

To help ensure that your account and contact information is up-to-date and that you do not miss out on any important information about your account or British Library services, please tell us as soon as possible if there are any changes to your postal address, email address or contact details.

Please email details of any changes to Customer-Services-Accounts@bl.uk

The British Library is committed to protecting your privacy. We will only use your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy

Payment of your Account – Remittance Advice 

To help us quickly and accurately process payments against your account and ensure continuity of service, please return your remittance advice direct to finance-receipts@bl.uk, or by mail to:

The British Library
Finance Receipts
Boston Spa
Wetherby
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom

Formatting your requests

To help speed up the processing of requests, the British Library uses its own 'Automatch' software to automatically read requests as they arrive and attempt to route them to the correct storage area for supply. If your bibliographic details are quoted in our preferred order, your requests will be automatically sorted and routed to the correct part of the library. However, if our software is unable to locate the item from the way in which the bibliographic information has been formatted, your requests will be routed for a manual check and a delay occurs.

Tests show that our software’s performance is enhanced if the volume number, part number and page numbers of the requested item are prefixed by certain codes. Our online order forms already add the required codes, but it would be helpful if customers who use ARTTel and ARTEmail could quote their bibliographic details in our preferred way.

Please prefix the volume number with 'VOL' followed by a single space; Prefix the part number with 'PT' followed by a single space and prefix the page numbers with 'PP' followed by a space. Ideally, all this information should be on one line as in the following example: 2002 VOL 55 PT 13 PP 1076-1090

Our systems are not case-sensitive so either may be used. The publication title should always be quoted as the first line of bibliographic detail. Please avoid the use of abbreviations and include author details whenever possible.

For more information on formatting your order correctly download our ARTguide

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

During 2009 Customer Services will be implementing a programme of regular Customer Satisfaction surveys on British Library services and you may be contacted for inclusion in a telephone or electronic survey. Your feedback is always greatly valued and your participation will be greatly appreciated in helping identify suggestions for improvement to our services. You may also comment at any time on any aspect of our services by emailing customer-services@bl.uk or completing the form on our website

Collection Moves

In January 2009 the British Library will be starting a collection moves programme of low-use items. This is the largest programme of moves we have undertaken since the opening of St Pancras in 1998.

The transfer of low-use items to a new storage facility on our Boston Spa site will take place in phases. During the first phase these low-use collections will become unavailable to Readers and for remote document supply. Access to this material will be withdrawn for a minimum of nine months. 

Any Document Supply requests received for items found to be in affected collections will be returned asking you to reapply after October 2009.

LOAN Message Keyword Code

We would like to remind all customers who send their requests to us by ARTTel or ARTEmail to use the Message Keyword Code LOAN every time they send a request asking for an item on loan. Unless you tell us that you want an item on loan, our system defaults to request a copy of the item and your request may be returned to you with the reply NCOP or RCOP. This means that it takes more time and more work for you to get the book you want.

Using the correct Message Keyword Code when you send the request the first time will reduce avoidable delay.

Contacting us by Telephone

The Customer Services Team is available to deal with all telephone enquiries from remote users of the British Library from 08.30 to 19.00 Monday to Friday. For Document Supply enquiries we are also able to offer a limited telephone service during our non core business hours 19:00 to 07:00 Monday to Friday and until 04:00 on Saturday morning. Should no one be available to immediately deal with your enquiry during this period, please try again later when a member of our Out of Hours Team should be able to answer your call.

Also, to help us deal more efficiently with your enquiry when contacting us by telephone, we will soon be asking you to enter your customer code, or reader number, prior to your call being answered. Providing this information will mean that we have full details of your account available when your call is connected.

Higher Education Scanning Service (HESS)

We do not currently add requests made through the Higher Education Scanning Service (HESS) to a waiting list if the item you require is not immediately available. However, as many of you have told us that you prefer to wait for items to become available, we plan to change this as soon as the necessary technical changes can be made to our request management system. In the interim, if a request is returned to you as not immediately available and you wish to be added to a waiting list, please contact Customer Services on +44 (0)1937 546060.

Paying your invoices by credit card

Invoices may be paid by credit card by contacting the Customer Services Accounts team on +44 (0)1937 546655. Please ensure that you have full credit card details to hand, including the 3 digit security code from the magnetic strip on the reverse of the card. From 1 December 2008 the capture of the card security code will become mandatory on all Cardholder Not Present transactions.

This change will also impact on those of you who have registered your card details with us for routine payment of your monthly Document Supply invoice as we are unable to store security code details. You will now need to contact us with your credit card details on the above number to make your monthly payment.

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