I'm with Jim on this. If it's been acquired using public money then at the very least it should be available by some method.

If it's available at a cost then fair enough but that cost should not be prohibitive.

There is too much stuff locked away in the UK. Some of it is only available to academics. I'm lucky as I have an 'Athens' password which gives me access to at least some stuff, material that my friends outside universities can't see. Given that most folk research is done by people outside academia this is not very helpful, and when all's said and done, the peoples music belongs to the people.