Guide to the Joint Fiction Reserves

The Joint Fiction Reserves (JFRs) exist to preserve and make available for public library borrowers out-of-print works of fiction.

Three Joint Fiction Reserves exist in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland: the English JFR, the Irish JFR and the Scottish Fiction Reserve.

The Scottish Fiction Reserve is not covered in detail in this Guide, but introductory information can be found towards the end.

The English and Irish schemes operate in a similar way: participating libraries aim to acquire all new fiction published within a particular alphabetical allocation and to make this available for interlibrary loan.

This Guide contains the latest available details of these alphabetical allocations and the addresses to which interlibrary loan requests should be made. It supersedes the Guide to the Joint Fiction Reserves, 2nd Edition (1999).

The regulations for the operation of the English JFR are included here for the guidance of participating libraries, together with some recommendations for good practice.

English Joint Fiction Reserve

Regulations and Recommendations for Good Practice

Standing Order Purchase

A standing order with a library supplier for all relevant items appearing in BNB is regarded as the best means of acquisition. However, where this is done it is essential that the supplier provides separate notification of items supplied for the JFR so that statistical records may be kept.

Junior Fiction

Discards

Offering and accepting discards for the JFR has not been sufficiently emphasized in the past, and should be encouraged. It is a useful means of retrospective collection and gap-filling and can also provide valuable duplicate copies at minimal cost.

Problems and Queries

Any problems or queries regarding the Joint Fiction Reserves should be addressed to your regional representative to Conarls, of whom details are available from the Conarls website: http://www.conarls.org/.

Schedules

For historical reasons, the English JFR has three schedules. Schedule 1 was the first, drawn up in 1946, and involves libraries in the South East of England. A revised schedule was drawn up in 1988 involving some additional libraries; it was agreed at the time that it was not viable to perform a wholesale retrospective transfer of stock, hence the second schedule operates parallel to the first. Schedule 3 was drawn up in 1962 and involves libraries from the rest of England.

Schedule 1: Alphabetical Allocations for Material Published before January 1988

Applications to libraries in this schedule should be clearly marked ‘special fiction request’ or ‘special request children’s story’.

A-BAI	Wandsworth
BAJ-BEL	Southwark
BEM-BOR	Tower Hamlets
BOS-CAP	Southwark
CAQ-CHD	Kensington and Chelsea
CHE-COL	Lewisham
COM-CRH	Islington
CRI-DEL	Hammersmith and Fulham
DEM-DRY	Greenwich
DRZ-FOZ	Hackney
FR-GN	Hammersmith and Fulham
GO-GRE	Camden
GRI-HOY	Islington
HOZ-KEL	Kensington and Chelsea
KEM-L	Lambeth
MA-MAY	Lewisham
MAZ-OZ	Westminster
P-PIC	Tower Hamlets
PID-RNZ	Camden
ROA-RZ	Southwark
S-SS	Essex
ST-THI	Tower Hamlets
THL-TRD	Hackney
TRE-WEB	Wandsworth
WEC-WI	Westminster
WJ-Z	Greenwich

Schedule 2: Alphabetical Allocations for Material Published from January 1988