Interlibrary loan and document supply (ILDS) in the NHS

This section covers the requesting and supply or journal articles, documents and books between NHS libraries in England.

Document supply

This covers the request and supply of journal articles and other documents in response to requests from users at your own and at other organisations.

You may supply to the extent permitted under the NHS CLA Licence Plus to NHS staff in your organisation and to those in other NHS libraries in England.

You may supply to the extent permitted under UK copyright law for requests to and from non-NHS libraries and to NHS libraries in England if the journal is excluded from the NHS CLA Licence Plus.

If you can’t supply from an NHS library, and the user needs to be able to copy and share, you may request a Copyright Fee Paid (CFP) article.  The fee extends the permissions to those of the NHS CLA Licence Plus.

More information about how much can be copied and what can be done with the copies, may be found in the Copyright section.

Please also find there, details of the copyright declaration you need to be able to supply under UK copyright law and the copyright statements to use when sending copies to requestors.

See the links for the expectations of libraries participating in ILDS, the preferred source order for supply, and the responsibilities of requesting and supplying libraries.

Electronic journal articles

Use INCDocs to check availability of supply. INCDocs includes details of all electronic journal holdings held by participating NHS libraries.

It uses article DOIs to check whether articles are available open access, in your own library’s collection, or in another NHS library’s collection.

If supply is only available from another library, a library with holdings is randomly selected and you may request a copy from them.

If you are using a regional Koha library management system, INCDocs availability checking and requesting is incorporated into the ILL module.

More information about using INCDocs direct or in Koha, and the standards which apply, may be found on the service desk.

Print journal articles

NHS libraries holdings of print journals are listed in a single union catalogue, PrintDOCs.

It includes electronic and print holdings of non-NHS libraries affiliated to the national NHS reciprocal ILDS scheme. These can only supply under UK copyright law.

It also lists electronic journals held by NHS libraries, but which do not have DOIs and so cannot be sourced in INCDocs.

If you are using a regional Koha library management system, PrintDOCs availability checking and requesting is incorporated into the ILL module.

More information about using PrintDOCs or in Koha and the standards which apply, may be found on the service desk.

Copyright fee paid (CFP) articles

Use these when an NHS library cannot supply an article, but only if an NHS user still needs to be able to copy and share. The copyright fee extends the permissions to those allowed under the NHS CLA Licence Plus.

Articles are checked for availability and ordered in ReprintsDesk (Article Galaxy).

If you are using a regional Koha library management system, ReprintsDesk availability checking and requesting is incorporated into the ILL module.

More information about using ReprintsDesk, and the standards which apply, may be found on the service desk.

Other sources

Other sources of supply are available. They will usually charge an annual subscription or for each article supplied.

If the supplying library is part of the NHS, articles will be covered by the NHS CLA Licence Plus; otherwise only by UK copyright law.

• NULJ and PLCS
• A local FE college or university if you have negotiated an arrangement
• British Medical Association Library
• Royal Society of Medicine
• Royal College of Surgeons

Books

Books may be borrowed by your users but also by users at other NHS libraries.

Requests for books from your own users would be managed through reservations in the circulation module of your library management system.

Requests for books from users at other libraries would be managed through the interlibrary loan module.

There may be restrictions on the items which may be requested for ILL.

Professional collections

Library staff have access to items of relevance to the profession. These are listed in the Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) and YorCat catalogues.

Strategic Inter-Network Collaboration Group (SINC)

The SINC Group has oversight of ILDS in NHS Knowledge and Library Services in England.