Contract Awards

Framework Agreement for the Supply of Reference Online Content for Public Libraries in England

In 2007 MLA started a tendering process to procure electronic products on behalf of the public libraries in England. The initiative is known by the name of Reference Online.The EU tendering process was completed successfully in April 2008 and resulted in a framework agreement with 22 awards.

Electronic products: general reference material, business, legal and financial information, newspapers, newspaper archives, encyclopaedias, streamed music services, etc

Contracting Authority: MLA
Customers: All Public Library Authorities in England

Approved Contractors

1. Alexander Street Press UK LLP
2. The British Standards Institution
3. Birmingham City Council, Library and Archive: Stories from the  Web
4. Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing Ltd
5. Cans Trust (Citizens Advice Notes Service Trust)
6. Careers Europe (part of Careers Bradford Ltd)
7. Credo Reference Ltd
8. Dandy Booksellers Ltd
9. Digitorial Ltd
10. Dun & Bradstreet Ltd (D&B)
11. EBSCO Information Services
12. The H.W.Wilson Company
13. Justis Publishing Ltd
14. Key Note Ltd
15. Nature Publishing Group (MacMillan Publishers Ltd)
16. NewsBank, inc
17. OCLC PICA Ltd
18. Oxford University Press ( The Chancellor Masters and Scholars  of the University of Oxford)
19. ProQuest Information and Learning (ProQuest LLC)
20. Reed Business Information Ltd (Kompass Publishers)
21. Research for Libraries
22. SWETS Information Services Ltd

Duration of the agreement: from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2012

For details on the full product range, method of calling off subscriptions, contact points, etc. please visit http://www.mla.gov.uk/programmes/digital_initiatives/reference_online

Projects which are currently open to tender are on the Tenders & Contracts page, while archived briefs from past contracts are on our Archived Briefs page.

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