BL builds direct link to document supply side. British Library Direct is a new online platform offering users a fresh interface for its document supply service, as well as extended search facilities, which aim to make its collections more easily accessible. Mark Chillingworth went to the St Pancras HQ to suss out its strategy.

British Library Direct may appear to be just a search engine, but the web interface to its Document Supply Service (DSS) is also the first shoots of a major new platform.

Following the full launch of British Library Direct during this month, the British Library (BL) will throw itself into a development schedule that will see its electronic content delivery abilities expand, and begin to form the basis of realising its strategy of making its collections easily accessible.

BL Direct enables users to search nine million records from 20,000 journals and is part of the BL's response to last summer's House of Commons Scientific Committee report Scientific Publications: free for all?, which stated that the BL needed to "take steps to protect the library's document supply service".

Last summer, the BL told IWR of its bold plans for a portal to facilitate document delivery and electronic services online, which was then scheduled to be launched by year end. It's now summer 2005, deadlines have been missed, but Matthew Pfleger, BL head of sales, says that it's better to be late and be confident that you have a good product.

The reason for the delay, he says, is that BL Direct is more than a search engine for DSS. "This is the first step. We have to innovate and we have to be relevant," he said, describing it as a "platform for moving BL into the 21st Century".

BL Direct is the platform from which the national library will develop new electronic services. Already the beta version of the site acts as a central point for the research, data licencing, and business and intellectual property centres within the BL, bringing a range of services under one virtual roof.

The first stage of growth for BL Direct will be an advanced search engine. Digital signature technology is expected by the autumn, and it will provide an end-user 'fair dealing' service. This will allow UK users involved in non-commercial research and private study to benefit from UK 'fair dealing' exceptions. Copyright fees will still apply for any UK researcher undertaking commercial research and anyone using BL Direct who is not based in the UK.