‘‘ Procurement


Public library content in an age of impact


T


HE range of activities, services and impacts a modern library service provides has grown significantly and undeniably in recent years. Alongside this, how we understand the results and the effects of what libraries deliver has shifted away from transactional measures. Now we move towards building greater understanding and evidence of outcomes and impacts – positioning ourselves to funders and decision-makers as the perfect partners for delivering social impact. And this is right. This is what we should be. However, amid this drive to redefine our place and perception it is easy to overlook the impacts of our core business of resource provision.


Content and its potential


Reading and information create significant social, personal and wellbeing benefit. They help people to feel better about their lives, to understand their world and their place in it and to navigate their way to better opportunities. This is real impact. Despite ongoing decline, accessing resources remains the single most popular driver of library use; so the scale of that impact is huge and the potential is ever greater. However, the impact our content has is only as good as the content itself. Even for those of us whose resource budgets have remained fairly stable, the rising cost of materials and a need to provide an increasing range of physical and digital formats means a real-terms decrease. Limited money needs to go even further than ever before, and so the work and expertise of stock and content specialists who are in touch with the needs of individuals and communities become ever more vital.


Where we are now


What needs to happen needs to happen efficiently. This means enabling expenditure to be focussed on the content itself, rather than the costs of getting it onto our (physical and virtual) shelves. This need not mean a lower quality service; slimmer, more effective processes of supply can create a more responsive and flexible experience for end users. Acquisitions and supply process are streamlined by advances such as EDI (electronic data interchange) and direct delivery to libraries. Very few public library services now have the luxury of dedicated, in-house cataloguers. Reliable and useable records come ready- formed, fed directly into catalogues by specialist suppliers, with any amending of records kept to an absolute minimum. Arrangements such as these mean less back-office handling and lower costs and, moreover, quicker supply and a better customer experience. Increasingly, library services are taking a consortium approach to the acquisition of content. Consortia vary hugely across the sector in terms of size and scope, with some focussing purely on the procurement and management of stock supply contracts and others working together though shared systems to provide a more co-ordinated customer provision across a geographical area. In addition to the increased negotiating power, a further benefit of consortium working is the creation of networks that enable mutual support and the sharing of expertise and good practice.


Selection challenge Many library services have sought efficiency through supplier selection of stock and content, whereby selections are carried out by the suppliers, working to specifications provided by the library


Reading and information create significant social, personal and wellbeing benefit.


Paul Howarth, Head of Content and Product Development, Suffolk Libraries.


service. The key to effective supplier selection lies in the quality of these specifications and in the continuous monitoring of the content provided against them. It is arguable that the capacity required to manage and monitor this properly is not too far removed from that required to carry out the selection itself. In Suffolk Libraries we have actively moved away from supplier selection, preferring to maintain control and flexibility. Although initially this may seem counter-intuitive, it allows much more locally-shaped, responsive selection.


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