The current ‘Serials, Periodicals and Associated Services’ agreement is led by SUPC and supported by HEPCW, LUPC, NEUPC, and NWUPC along with the four specialist library consortia Academic Libraries North, MUAL, NEYAL, and WHELF. The agreement ran for an initial 2 year period and has had two 12 month extensions, totally four years. It expires on 30th April 2023 and is likely to be extended until 31st July 2023.

The agreement scope remains similar to the current agreement and will cover the supply of serials by subscriptions agents in print and/or electronic formats. This includes current, backissue, backsets and digital archives of periodicals; newspapers and annuals (annual conference proceedings, reports, yearbooks, etc); the journals, memoirs, proceedings, transactions and other similar publications of societies; numbered monographic series; standing orders; standards and databases. Also included are associated services relating to consolidation or usage analysis.

Lot 1 is intended for suppliers delivering comprehensive academic library subscription services from any publisher willing to contract via a subscriptions agent, including both print and digital resources with a subscriptions management portal and appropriate consolidation services

Lot 2 is intended for suppliers who cannot offer the full service but nevertheless offer valuable services to members. It is appropriate for suppliers who may not have a subscriptions management portal or who offer only digital services. A broad range of suppliers might fall into this Lot but they must be able to manage subscription transactions on behalf of members and offer a wide range of publishers.