EHESS FAQs

If you do not hold a copy of the original item in your collection you will need to order using the Copyright Fee Paid service. One Copyright Fee Paid copy can be used over multiple courses, as long as the material is still included in the relevant CLA Licence and is within the extent limits for that licence.
This service provides a way to purchase CFP copies, which can sit in your library stock and/or be copied under the CLA Education Licence. This differs from Library Privilege or Inter Library Loans, where material is supplied but cannot be used under the Licence, as your Institution does not own the content.
If you are purchasing a CFP copy to place in your library stock, then no, but if you intend to copy the material then any purchases made via EHESS or EFESS should be checked against the Check Permissions search tool before ordering to ascertain Licence coverage.
Yes. A signed Agreement with the CLA is required and an additional account with the British Library dedicated to your EHESS or EFESS orders will need to be set up.
Please contact customer@bl.uk 
If you have a question about your invoice or balance, or would like to top up your deposit, please contact education.renewals@cla.co.uk
Payment is made to the CLA. You can pay monthly or pay in advance. Invoices and statements will be despatched from the CLA on a monthly basis. Once CLA has received transaction data from the British Library, it will be accessible to view online via a link issued when your account is confirmed.
No, you will not receive monthly statements, but you can log in to your account online at https://accountlogin.cla.co.uk/login and view your balance and transaction history at any time. Transaction history is loaded each calendar month.
It is entirely up to you whether you choose the pre-pay option or to pay monthly. There is a reduced service charge when paying in advance. When you pay monthly, we send an invoice for any transactions from the previous calendar month. When you pre-pay, we deduct transactions from the previous calendar month from your pre-pay deposit balance.

Interim service FAQs

Since the British Library doesn’t yet have all digital systems running, the service will be provided in a more manual way. Key differences include:
  • An increased supply turnaround (from 48 hours to 4 days)
  • A pre-approved copyright fee acceptance of up to £40 per extract
  • A cancellation limit of 24 hours from placing an order (after which the order will be in process and so cancellation will not be possible)
The British Library used to receive and manage the majority of orders via API, and had automated internal systems for almost all aspects of the service. These have not yet been rebuilt and so the management and processing of orders will be more manual. This naturally takes more time.
The copyright fee element of an EHESS fee is set by the publishers for their titles. There is an agreed default fee for any title where the publisher has not set a specific fee (currently £30 for a book chapter and £38 for a journal article). In the automated EHESS process, HEIs would see the fee before placing the order. In the more manual interim process, this won’t be possible. We aim to limit the number of email interactions by requiring HEIs to only place an order if they accept up to £40 for the copyright fee. This is close to the default fee and accounts for around 80% of requests over the past 2 years. If a fee is above £40, the British Library will inform the HEI, who can then take the decision to order at this price or not. We will monitor the service to ensure the pre-approved price cap serves a balance of control for HEIs and FEIs, and manageability for the British Library.
If your HEI uses the DCS, you will be able to place an order through the ‘order from EHESS’ button as usual. The CLA team will then liaise with the British Library to manage the order to closure or upload of scan. If you usually order directly from the British Library, please continue to do so. The team there will pick up and manage your order directly. If you normally order via Talis Aspire, please order place your EHESS requests by emailing the British Llibrary directly at E-Hess@bl.uk until further notice.
We are working to a go-live date of 1 August 2024.