Test digital limits
One obvious recent change in library resource provision is the growth of digital resources. After an uncertain start, with publishers and suppliers unsure how to shape a workable library model, the steady growth in library eBook use continues, even when current reports show the format to have peaked in retail settings. Libraries have limited options in relation to digital resource provision in terms of range of formats and content and, where opportunities are available, squeezed budgets offer little room for taking risks. However, in order stay relevant, we need to be looking forward, anticipating demand and horizon-scanning the market place for new products. Suffolk Libraries aims to be an early adopter for new library products and formats. Where opportunities appear we intentionally push ourselves to give things a go. Suffolk Libraries was the first UK library service to offer music streaming and downloads and recently we became the second to provide film streaming through the Kanopy platform.
Chasing results
A broader, knottier challenge facing content and collection managers in public libraries lies in balancing the need to meet demand for popular material with that of providing broad subject coverage and a collection that represents a diverse audience. This is not a new dilemma, but as budgets come under increasing pressure this balance is ever more difficult to strike. In a climate where everything has to ‘earn its keep’, the easy response is to chase issue figures, focussing on the high turnover, big hitting titles. But in doing that we lose something of our true value and impact – the provision of breadth and depth. As pressure increases it is ever
more import that we have control over how our limited budget is spent. We need to be making smart, informed choices that gel with local communities, that satisfy our loyal, existing borrowers and also may resound with new and diverse audiences.
Evidence-base isn’t enough Library stock selection is an art. But it’s also a science, and whether you use stock evidence tools, such as Collection HQ, data from the library management system or more intuitive professional insight and knowledge to inform selection (and in reality it’s likely to be a bit of all three), decisions need to be based on evidence. However, most of
our approaches focus on existing data and patterns of use, i.e. what has already happened. And while there is clear need to understand past performance and current trends, there is a risk here of perpetuating patterns of decline. We all know the adage that if you keep on doing the same things you keep on getting the same results. So, this analysis based approach to content selection needs to step outside of itself, to look forwards and outwards instead of just backwards and in. A major focus of my team’s work is in gaining understanding of our wider communities and population, looking for the demographic and geographic trends of need, now and in the future. Libraries are starting to think this way in terms of service development, but we are perhaps slower to make this connection in terms of content selection. Content cannot be looked at in isolation of all the other innovative work libraries are doing. It needs to be a part of it. It needs to be leading it.
Align content and strategy In the first half of this financial year Suffolk libraries have seen an overall increase of 10 per cent in the use of library content, when measured across all physical and digital formats and media. Although staying off the decline in physical lending remains a challenge, this positive picture of overall growth suggests that, where content selection and strategy is aligned with wider strategies around impact and community need, there remains a strong future for libraries in their core function of resource provision. BG
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