UK Research Reserve

UKRR allows libraries to de-duplicate their journal holdings and save space. The UKRR team, based at the British Library site at Boston Spa, check the availability of every issue offered against the national collection by searching library holdings listed on Jisc Library Hub to make sure that two copies of a journal are always retained - an access copy at the British Library and one further preservation copy within the community. 

Log into LARCH to submit the journal titles you want to de-duplicate. If you’re a new user, please contact us to register.

UK Research Reserve (UKRR) Service - potential impact of site works at Boston Spa

The British Library has ambitious plans to transform our Boston Spa site, including the building of a state-of-the-art, high-density repository, adding 225km of storage capacity. This will support the storage and availability of the continually-growing national collection for generations to come and allow the de-commissioning storage buildings that date back to the 1940s. This major new development commenced this year, following the commitment of £95m of Government funding, and has a target date of 2025 for completion.

During this period, the physical collections held at Boston Spa will have to be temporarily relocated elsewhere on-site to allow construction works to take place. The UKRR service will continue as normal receiving and processing lists, but we expect there to be some challenges in terms of our ability to receive de-duplicated collections from donating libraries. 

You should continue to submit lists as normal, but please be aware that from now until at least early 2025, the UKRR team will be carefully managing ingest capacity and may have to defer or re-plan physical transfers to Boston Spa. We will aim to communicate any such disruption in advance, so that you are able to plan accordingly.

Contact us

Please continue to contact ukrr@bl.uk, or if you prefer, contact the UKRR Team Manager directly.