Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 8 Jun 2026, 12:04 BST

Official UK procurement notice

002834 RFI British Library Non-print Legal Deposit ejournal Articles Supply Service

Authority: British Library Board (Central government)

ServicesAbove threshold
Planned pipeline value£600,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 31 Dec 2029 · starts 1 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

On behalf of the Legal Deposit Libraries (LDLs), the British Library invites organisations operating within the digital preservation, scholarly publishing, metadata management and content aggregation sectors to provide information regarding their capability to provide a Non-Print Legal Deposit eJournal Article Supply Service.

The purpose of this Request for Information is to:

  • understand the current market capability for provision of these services;
  • identify suppliers capable of providing all or part of the services described within this document;
  • determine whether effective competition exists within the market;
  • understand alternative service models, technologies and delivery approaches available;
  • identify any barriers to market participation;
  • understand implementation approaches, costs and timescales;
  • inform future procurement strategy and compliance with the Procurement Act 2023.

The British Library may use information obtained through this market engagement exercise to determine whether a competitive procurement process is appropriate or whether any statutory grounds for direct award may apply.

This Request for Information is issued solely for information gathering and market engagement purposes. It does not constitute a call for competition, invitation to tender, or any commitment by the British Library to commence a procurement process.

Participation in this exercise will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in any future procurement process.

For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:

www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-London… ↗

To respond to this opportunity, please click here:

www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/DRMU8SX336 ↗

CPV: Archive services · Data management services · Data supply services · Database services · Journals

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How British Library Board buys Newspapers (CPV 2221), and who usually turns up

British Library Board’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Newspapers (CPV 2221) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerBritish Library Board · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 63 of 89 known-size awards · market: no supplier sizes published
71%—

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 27 of 31 known-location awards · market: no winner locations published
87%—

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in the delivery region.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 5 decided notices · market: no decision dates published
48 days—

Half of these awards were announced within 48 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The buyer’s share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 28 of 132 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: no bid counts or routes published
21%—

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer5 lots with bid counts · all categories
0% had one bid
The marketNo bid counts published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
1 bid0%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
2–360%
Buyer: 3 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
4–640%
Buyer: 2 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
7+0%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer7 lots with estimate and award · all categories
43% below estimate
The marketNo estimate-and-award pairs published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
Below estimate43%
Buyer: 3 of 7 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%57%
Buyer: 4 of 7 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0%
Buyer: 0 of 7 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 222136 monthsPublished estimate£600k
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 44 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet7% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 44 similar lots
1 bid7%
3 of 44 similar past lots received 1 bid (7%).
2–334%
15 of 44 similar past lots received 2–3 (34%).
4–627%
12 of 44 similar past lots received 4–6 (27%).
7+32%
14 of 44 similar past lots received 7+ (32%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4.5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £600k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
8 Jun 2026, 12:04 BST
Last source update
8 Jun 2026, 12:04 BST
Authority reference
002834
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-053740
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Archive servicesData management servicesData supply servicesDatabase servicesJournals
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06af9e Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

8 Jun 2026 → 1 Jan 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published136 days ago
    8 Jun 2026, 12:04 BST
  2. Market engagement108 days ago
    6 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST

    Suppliers are requested to download the documents from the document repository, on Delta eSourcing, for full details on how to respond to this Request for Information.

  3. Today
    22 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 70 days
    1 Jan 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 Jun 2026, 12:04 BST
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

British Library

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PCXZ-9362-XQJM British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, London, NW1 2DBContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure