Background: Following the Cochrane Colloquium in October 1999 a collaborative relationship was established between the British Library and the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group. The pilot experiment was to provide: 1. free access to the 'Inside' current awareness and document ordering service and; 2. special access to the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC). In exchange, an independent evaluation of 'Inside' was to be provided to the British Library. Objectives: To evaluate British Library services and, if valuable, to investigate the feasibility of expanding the relationship with the British Library beyond one Cochrane group.

Methods: 1. Simple searches were developed to compare the currency and user-friendliness of 'Inside' with PubMed Pre-Medline. A 'Table of Contents' Search was created for specific journals to test the usefulness of 'Inside' as an automated current awareness source. A number of searches were carried out in 'Inside' to identify relevant conference proceedings. 2. Meetings and correspondence with a British Library representative to enable access to stacks/acquisition of articles without the usual restrictions.

Results: Preliminary results indicate that 'Inside' will not replace PubMed Pre-Medline, but it may deliver useful material not covered by Medline. Its main strength is the delivery of search results via e-mail. When compared to PubMed, 'Inside' lacks abstract availability, keyword searching and the ability to download records directly into reference management systems such as Procite. The viability of 'special access' for Cochrane researchers to BLDSC remains in question.