The central UK organisation for inter-library loans. Supplies books and photocopies of journal articles from its own collection at Boston Spa and other parts of the British Library. Passes requests on to other UK libraries and libraries overseas. Requests for materials can be made online using the ARRTel system (subscription required) or via the WWW site (with or without subscription). Maintains several databases, available on WWW site:
(a) Monographs help at Supply Centre, published since 1980. Only basic bibliographical details are given, so useful for bibliographical checking and document ordering. Also available on Blaise as file DSC (see separate entry).
(b) Serial holdings: BL holds some 64,000 currently received titles. BLDSC also holds runs of 290,000 journals which have ceased publication: