Publishers and British Library agree framework licence

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The British Library and the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) have agreed a framework licence agreement. This agreement, to be entered into directly between individual publishers and the British Library, governs the supply of copies of articles from the British Library’s Document Supply Service to non-commercial and users via not-for-profit libraries outside the UK. The UK Publishers Association is also recommending the framework licence agreement to its members.

Barry Smith, head of commercial services at the British Library said, 'We are delighted to have agreed a framework licence with STM. This means we can improve the speed of service delivery we offer to our overseas non-commercial users and augment our current Document Supply Service.'

Any articles to be supplied under this new service are solely for an end-user’s own private study or non-commercial research purposes. The terms of the licence are distinct from the library’s service for the supply of articles for commercial purposes, and shall require end-users and not-for-profit libraries to ensure that the differentiation between commercial and non-commercial use is actively monitored and differentiated. The framework licence agreement will start from 1 January 2012.