Locating Fiction in English

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 UK and Ireland: the Regional JFR, the London and South Eastern Regional Joint Fiction Reserve (LASER JFR), and the Irish JFR. A similar but distinct Scottish Fiction Reserve is also in operation.

• The Regional JFR, operating in England outside the former London and South East Region, dates from 1962 and has 57 participating libraries.
• The LASER JFR was set up in 1946, revised in 1988, and has 39 participating libraries.
• The Irish JFR, established in 1965 and covering the Republic and the North, has 24 participating libraries.

These three schemes all 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.

The Scottish Fiction Reserve, set up in 1955 to ensure the systematic collection and preservation of the works of Scottish novelists, major and minor, operates in a different way from the other schemes. All 32 Scottish public library authorities participate and collect on a basis of local association, each library making itself responsible for authors born in its area or closely associated with it. A Directory of Authors, available from the National Library of Scotland, aims to be a comprehensive list of Scottish fiction writers, and lists the libraries in which their work is collected and made available through interlibrary loan.

For more details, please consult the Guide to the Joint Fiction Reserves.