
When you register for On Demand you agree to abide by the following terms and conditions
Below are the terms and conditions you agree to when registering for British Library On Demand. These terms were updated in July 2022.
These Special Terms are supplementary to our Core Terms. Any expressions defined in the Core Terms and used in these Special Terms shall have the meaning given to them in the Core Terms.
The British Library On Demand service (“BLOD Service”) supplies copies of original items in printed, electronic, microfilm or microfiche format (“Copy” or “Copies”) and lend original items from our collection in response to Orders from you.
1. Copyright Fee Paid Service
1.1 We will charge a publication-specific copyright fee on all Copies supplied. This fee will be in addition to any service charge for the supply of the Copy. Please see our price list. We will be responsible for the payment of all copyright fees paid by you to us to the publisher or their agent (“Rights Holder”). Such copyright fees shall relate to the supply of a single Copy only by us to you, and shall be shown separately by us on each invoice or statement we supply to you.
1.2 All Copies are produced under licence from the Rights Holder. We are prohibited from providing Copies from some of the material in our collection. Details of this excluded material, and the specific copyright fees for material from which we are permitted to supply Copies, are available on our catalogue.
1.3 You must not copy, scan, transmit or store electronically any Copies that you receive from us unless you have the permission of the copyright owner or of The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd or another authorised licensing body or save as permitted by statute. You may recoup the cost of Copies supplied to members of staff employed by or otherwise accredited to your organisation, including students or walk-in users. However if you wish to order Copies on behalf of a third party outside your organisation, you might need to become one of our intermediaries. To find out more about becoming an intermediary please contact us for further information.
2. Library Privilege Service
2.1 The Library Privilege Service is NOT available to you if you are:
2.1.1 registered as an individual;
2.1.2 a non-commercial organisation based in the United States,;
2.1.3 a library which is not publicly accessible or in an educational establishment; or
2.1.4 an organisation that is conducted for-profit except if located in the UK and requests are made under sections 45-50 of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as amended from time to time, or any regulations made thereunder (“the Act”) in accordance with Clause 2.7.
2.2 By requesting Copies via the Library Privilege Service, you warrant that you will conform to the relevant sections of the Act.
2.3 If your organisation is eligible to receive Copies under the Library Privilege Service, and you wish to use the Library Privilege Service, you acknowledge and agree that your use of the Library Privilege Service is conditional upon fulfilling the requirements set out in Clause 2.4.
2.4 You undertake that, for each Copy requested under Sections 42A and 43 (as may be consolidated or varied by law from time to time) of the Act (supply of copies for non-commercial research or private study purposes) by a registered or walk-in user, or staff member of your organisation (“user”), you:
(i) shall act as an agent of the British Library in distributing any Copy made by us to users. For the avoidance of doubt, this does not constitute a commercial relationship under the Commercial Agents Regulations 1993;
(ii) acknowledge and agree that any Copy is supplied to the user c/o you, and not to your organisation;
(iii) will obtain from such user a declaration substantially in accordance with the Act’s current regulations. (A current version of the declaration is available in English here or from Customer Services).
(iv) shall retain any declaration obtained in accordance with clause 2.4 (iii) for a period of six years, plus the current year. You shall permit us, and/or any authorised representative of us on reasonable notice to inspect the declaration forms. We shall be permitted to conduct “spot checks” of declaration forms randomly and, if applicable, on the basis of reported suspected abuse; and
(v) shall ensure that neither you (nor the user giving such declaration) will copy, scan, store electronically or sell any such Copy, unless the item is under an open licence, you have a separate licence or agreement with the Rights Holder or an appropriate licensing body that specifically permits this, or further copying is allowed under statute.
2.5 You acknowledge that, if you do not comply with the requirements set out in Clause 2.4, you will be deemed to be in breach of these Special Terms and you may be liable for any costs or damages suffered by us as a consequence of such non-compliance.
2.6 To be eligible for the supply of Copies under Section 41 (Copying by librarians: supply of single copies to other libraries) and 42 (Copying by librarians: replacement copies of works) of the Act your organisation must be a library, archive, museum or gallery that is NOT conducted for profit, and you agree to accept liability for any claims of infringement of copyright, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right arising from your request.
2.7 Sections 45-50 of the Act (copies made for the purposes of public administration including, but not limited to, judicial or statutory proceedings or for the purposes of a Royal Commission or public records): you agree to accept liability for any claims of infringement of copyright, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right arising from your request for a Copy under this Clause 2.7.
2.8 The current Regulations under the Act do not permit us to supply Copies that are required for commercial purposes. This restriction applies to ALL users of the Library Privilege Service.
3. Electronic Document Delivery
3.1 Unless you have the express permission of the Rights Holder, you undertake that any Copies delivered by any electronic method (including facsimile transmission) will not be copied, processed, manipulated or retransmitted other than to enable a single copy on paper to be printed. In addition, you must ensure that all electronic versions of the Copy are deleted after successful printing unless specifically indicated otherwise on any message accompanying the Copy.
3.2 If you request a Copy for the purposes of copying, processing, manipulation or retransmission, you acknowledge that you have obtained the necessary permission from the Rights Holder, and that you agree to indemnify us against any claim, or alleged claim, of infringement from the Rights Holder in the event that such permission has not been obtained. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary permission before requesting a Copy.
4. The Loan Service
4.1 We reserve the right to refuse loan applications.
4.2 The Loan Service is offered solely to organisations and not individuals.
4.3 For details of how to return or renew items obtained through the Loan Service, please see here.
4.4 You accept that compensation may be charged by us, which may include an administration charge as well as the full cost of repairing or replacing the item, for
4.4.1 items damaged whilst on loan to you; such damage includes the defacing of pages, removal of pages or inserts, the tearing or cutting of pages or any other form of defacement or damage to our original items in any way; and
4.4.2 items lost from the time of receipt by you until safe return into our custody. we recommend, therefore, that you use some form of recorded delivery service for their return.
4.5 When items are used by your users it should be in accordance with your normal regulations for the use of original items unless we stipulate any special regulations, with which both you and your user must comply. These will be set out in your Order Confirmation.
4.6 If you are situated outside the United Kingdom, you must:
4.6.1 not make any requests to us that would contravene customs regulations when we supply the item to you;
4.6.2 use the fastest method available (airmail should be used whenever possible) and should ensure adequate packaging, clear labelling (in accordance with any customs regulations) and adequate insurance when returning the item to us.
5. Supply
5.1 In the event that the item you require is unavailable or cannot be supplied as you have specified, we will inform you.
We reserve the right to:
5.1.1 refuse any request for the BLOD Service; and
5.1.2 not dispatch items to an address other than your registered address.
5.2 Any fault (including, but not limited to, missing pages, poor quality or wrong item) must be notified to us as follows:
5.2.1 for a Copy supplied by electronic means, you must notify us within 28 days of the date that we notify you that the Copy is available. A further Copy will be sent but the original Copy must be deleted along with any associated files; or
5.2.2 for a Copy supplied in printed form or a loan item, you must notify us within 28 days of receipt.
6. Payment and account management
6.1 Invoices will sent electronically to your nominated invoicing email address.
6.2 If you think you have paid a copyright fee for an Open Access article supplied by us, please contact us and we may be able to refund your account.
6.3 For the avoidance of doubt, charges will be payable for all Copies supplied by us. It is your responsibility to ascertain whether the item required is available at no, or lower, cost from an alternative source, and, once an order has been confirmed it cannot either be changed or cancelled, unless it has been added to a waiting list.
6.4 If you are a deposit account holder, you will receive an invoice for payment when the invoice value exceeds the value of the deposit held against your business account. Deposit account holders are responsible for maintaining their deposit balance.
6.5 We reserve the right to close your business account should your usage of the BLOD Service fall below our minimum threshold of 100 requests or your business account is inactive for 12 months.
7. Interlibrary lending
7.1 We process payments for inter-library lending (“ILL”) on behalf of other libraries, and charge the requesting library an administration fee for using this service.
7.2 All contracts and prices for the purposes of ILL are agreed between the requesting and supplying business account holder. In entering into ILL you are authorising use of your business account for the purposes of payment or recompense for your ILL transactions.
7.3 We accept no responsibility for any disputes arising between the supplying and requesting business account holder.
8. Liability
8.1 We will indemnify you in respect of all reasonable and proper legal costs, expenses and damages (and ex gratia payments made with our prior written consent) against any claim in writing that any Copy supplied through the Copyright Fee Paid Service is an infringing Copy, provided that:
8.1.1 You inform us in writing within 10 working days of receiving such a claim;
8.1.2 You have not modified the supplied Copy in any way nor removed the copyright notice attached to such Copy by us;
8.1.3 the action has not arisen as a result of any action, neglect or omission on your part;
8.1.4 you have not made any admission, offer, promise, payment or indemnity on our behalf without our prior written consent;
8.1.5 you are not in breach of these Special Terms;
8.1.6 our services to you had not been suspended by us at the time of the claim;
8.1.7 we are given immediate and complete control of the action, together with the right, at our option, to defend any claim and/or make settlement in respect thereof; and
8.1.8 you give such assistance as we may reasonably require, at our cost, to settle or oppose the action.
The above indemnity does not apply to any Copies supplied without copyright fees, including, but not limited to, Copies from out of copyright or Open Access items, for which no copyright fee will be charged.
8.2 To the fullest extent permitted by law:
8.2.1 We shall not be liable to you for consequential, indirect, special or exemplary damages including but not limited to damages for loss of profits, business or anticipated benefits whether arising under tort, contract, negligence or otherwise whether or not foreseen, reasonably foreseeable or advised of the possibility of such damages; and
8.2.2 no responsibility is assumed by us for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of product liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in any Copy supplied by us under these Special Terms.
8.3 The express terms of these Special Terms are in lieu of all warranties, conditions, undertakings, terms and obligations implied by statute, common law, trade usage, course of dealing or otherwise including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose all of which are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.
8.4 Nothing in these Special Terms shall exclude or limit either party’s liability for:
8.4.1 death or personal injury resulting from the negligence of either party or their servants, agents or employees; or
8.4.2 fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.9. Survival
The obligations and liabilities of the parties under Clauses 4.2, 8, 10 and 11, together with Clauses 3.2 , 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 and 5.4 where applicable, and such other clauses as may reasonably be construed as surviving termination, shall survive the termination of the Contract.
British Library
March 2019
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