National Union List of Print Journals
More information about NHSE's plans to set up a national union list.
Why do we need it?
Knowledge for Healthcare seeks digital knowledge resources which are quickly and easily discoverable through a robust infrastructure and streamlined systems and processes. This includes document requesting and supply services.
INCDocs covers electronic journal content. To make the most of the NHS CLA Licence the next source to use to obtain articles is NHS print journals.
Analysis of INC network request traffic reveals 30% of requests can only be satisfied from print journal holdings.
Currently, there are multiple catalogues to search for print journal holdings. Requests for articles are processed in many different ways, making requesting and reporting more difficult than it needs to be.
It makes sense to have one place to go for NHS electronic journal holdings and one place to go for NHS print journal holdings.
NHS England has approved the creation of the national union list and the inclusion of affiliates’ holdings.
How will the national union list work?
Article requests should be processed via regional library management or via the National Union List for Print Journals itself.
If you are a member of a regional LMS consortia, process journal article requests via your LMS if it has an ILL module.
If you are not a member of a regional LMS consortia, process via the ILL module of your local LMS or use the requesting functionality of the national union list.
Simply search for holdings and place a request for the article from a library with holdings.
If you are using Koha, we plan to use an API to connect the ILL module with the national union list.
What about affiliates?
The analysis of INC network traffic reveals that most affiliates are net suppliers of articles to the NHS. They are also suppliers of content not available in the NHS.
Affiliates will need to supply to all NHS libraries in England rather than just libraries in the regional network to which they are affiliated.
If they are happy to do this, and wish to continue supplying to the NHS in England, they may also add their journal holdings to the national union list.
What are the next steps?
Now we’ve decided to set up the national union list of print journals, we’re reviewing the options.
A SINC task and finish group has been set up to review the potential platform to host the national union list:
- LAWMUNION
- PANDDA Union List
- A solution using Koha
We’re having discussions with the platform providers about APIs and processes.
In addition, we plan upload holdings onto the chosen platform centrally. Training on the chosen system will be offered nearer to go live.
What is the timescale?
We hope to make a decision about the platform to host the national union list in March/April 2024, and aim to go live in Autumn 2024.