SW NHS libraries associate membership task & finish group December 2011
Associate membership tariff
In considering the appropriate tariff for associate membership, current
charges for NHS and university libraries have been taken into account and
used to contribute towards setting prices.
Where costs have been estimated, the NHS libraries cost framework and its
principles have been employed to provide a transparent basis for cost
calculation.
Assumptions
If we are to provide services to those who are not our core users, it should not
be to the detriment of core users and should be justifiable to organisations
providing core funding.
Charges should recover the cost of service provision as a minimum and may
be higher in order to provide a positive benefit to the services and core users.
It is assumed that services are currently at capacity and that it would not be
feasible to deliver a large workload placed on the service by non-core users.
Recommendations
Associate membership will be subject to a fee and will be granted to those
with a specific identifiable need to use NHS facilities and collections.
Borrowing entitlements could be determined locally or may be standardised;
as a suggestion, associate members could borrow up to four items from stock
and may place up to two reservations on stock.
Copying of library material will be permitted, subject to copyright restrictions
and local charging policy.
Assistance will be provided in using library resources and facilities and a
reference enquiry service will be available, but longer enquiries and research
work will be subject to an additional charge (see over).
Advice and assistance will be given on registering for NHS electronic
resources; applicants will be subject to the eligibility criteria at
http://www.evidence.nhs.uk/nhs-evidence-content/journals-anddatabases/nhs-athens-eligibility-criteria
Access to local IT facilities may be provided; this will be subject to the IT
policies of the provider organisation and potential members should be made
aware of this.
Standard per annum charges should be priced as follows:
 Individuals £250
 Corporate from £1000. £1000 for up to five named members and a further
£1000 for each five named members thereafter.
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SW NHS libraries associate membership task & finish group December 2011
Local services may offer a discounted rate at their discretion, e.g. to low
waged individuals or non-profit making organisations.
 For an individual this should not be less than £150 in order to recover
reasonable costs1.
 Based on the standard charges model, this would mean a minimum of
£600 per five named members from a non-profit making organisation.
Certain services will not be included and will be subject to additional charges.
 Document supply should be charged at £15 per item, plus any relevant
copyright clearance charge2.
 Bespoke services such as training, literature searching, research and indepth enquiry work and current awareness services should be charged
from £35 per hour3.
 These minimum charges are only marginally higher than cost recovery and
it may be appropriate to add a percentage overhead.
Copyright and commercial use
All copies and scans supplied under fair dealing / library privilege or NHS
licences must be for non-commercial use. If a request is made by a non-NHS
user and is for commercial purposes, it is recommended that a copyrightcleared copy from British Library is an appropriate way to fulfil this request.
1
See spreadsheet for estimation of cost of use.
Based on test costing using the ILDS template in the cost framework.
3 Assuming that these services will require the input of Band 6 / 7 staff and adjusting the
hourly cost for these staff using the cost framework calculator.
2
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