The NBK and the UK Distributed Print Book Collection (UK DPC)

Abstract

For many years, the UK’s academic library community (including special and national libraries) has been talking about the increasing urgency of a shared approach to ensure the preservation of, and preservation of access to, increasing numbers of scarce print books held in libraries across the UK. The ongoing move towards digital first provision, pressure on physical spaces, and the challenges posed by ever-increasing demands on staff time and financial resources make this time critical. There is precedent in the form of the UK Research Reserve (UKRR), which addressed the need for a collective approach to the management of print journals and began life as a project in 2007 before transitioning to a ‘business as usual’ service at the BL in 2019. It has long been agreed that something similar for monographs was needed. The UK Distributed Print Book Collection (UK DPBC) seeks to address this need and is supported by Research Libraries UK (RLUK) under their 2022 – 2025 strategy, The Library Transforming.