Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to invite you to participate in a survey exploring a possible extension of UKRR (UK Research Reserve) into monographs. This is a survey being done by Theo Stubbs, a colleague here at Imperial, on behalf of UKRR, and in partial fulfilment of an MA in Library and Information Service Management from the University of Sheffield.

Survey link: https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bm6XiMZQDqE0T3f
Password: UKRRM

UKRR for journals has been a success, using a combined distributed and centralised model, with copies held by the British Library and two holding libraries and space released at participating institutions. Thus, understanding the viability of a national approach to monographs, and the specific concerns and priorities of the academic library community, seems an appropriate next step.

Two studies, one by RLUK, and another by White Rose Libraries (links below), have suggested that ‘rareness is common’ among UK academic library collections, and so there is quite possibly less duplication than previously assumed. This thus gives any potential project of this type a particular complexion, and allows for a range of interesting priorities for involvement, as the space savings and any de-duplication may not be as large as initially thought.
https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2016/oclcresearch-strength-in-numbers-rluk-collective-collection-2016.pdf
https://blog.ccm.copac.jisc.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2017/09/Understanding-collections-overlap-final-report-July-2017-including-appendices.pdf

The completion of this survey is best done by a library director, due to the strategic nature of some of the questions. However, aspects of it are likely to require input from other staff members, most likely collection managers, and so I attach the set of questions here, thus allowing you to work out who is best placed to offer information on each of them, as well as see exactly what the survey asks of you. I do please ask that you don’t complete the survey using the attached sheet, but instead follow one of the links in this email. You will need a password to enter the survey, and this is ‘UKRRM’.

A key purpose of this survey is to find out what the main drivers for participation would be for the UK academic library community alone. At this stage it is very much exploratory work, with a view to understanding if any such project could be viable, and if so, what models are most worthy of investigation. As slightly touched upon in the survey, we understand that academics would have their own, potentially strong, opinions about a project of this type. Thus, I would like to reassure you that we recognise the crucial importance of systematic surveying of, and consultation with, academic staff as an important step prior to any such project taking place.

A thorough introduction to the research is found at the link below. I would initially suggest reading this, and if you do have any questions about anything then the researcher, Theo Stubbs, would be delighted to respond. His contact details are found in this introductory sheet.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VsRN98t1dsOi3M9FdVJAa4sCVgH2rYHr/view?usp=sharing

The survey will be open for responses until Friday 13th July 2018.

Survey link: https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bm6XiMZQDqE0T3f
Password: UKRRM

Thanks, and best wishes,

Chris Banks (Head of UKRR) on behalf of:

Theo Stubbs
Senior Library Assistant
Silwood Park Campus Library
Imperial College London
Ascot
SL5 7PY
0207 594 2462
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