Library eco cards.
and also with agreements on service levels. “Other colleagues will be involved in the procurement process, too. The Libraries Division is fortunate to have a dedicated Digital and Technology Delivery Manager – and we work together on all purchases related to IT – the LMS, RFID hardware and soft- ware, screens, gates, sorters and so on. “Each library service has a Partnership Manager who is involved in purchas- es for the service they manage. They may prefer to buy certain products locally, and we can act flexibly, adding suppliers which demonstrate good value to our approved suppliers. The acquisitions team for each service will also have an important role in relation to any project relating to stock.”
Working with suppliers
“Occasionally, we want to buy a prod- uct which is not on the market,” Diana
16
says. “When we were looking at our green agenda, we thought about tickets. Our library app will allow customers to hold the ticket on their smartphone, indeed will allow the customer to issue material using their phone.
“But not everyone has a phone, so we still need tickets – and these tickets are normally made of plastic, indeed we bought them from a company called Spectrum Plastics and Products, who produce approximately 90 per cent of the UK’s library cards.
“We explained to Spectrum that we wanted a ‘natural’ biodegradable library card – which would biodegrade within six months – and Spectrum experimented until they produced it. We introduced the product initially in libraries in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Libraries as they were running out of cards – and have since moved across to the Mark II ver- sion in our other Partnerships. Changing
the way we source library cards might seem like a small step, but the cumula- tive impact is significant.
“With over 121,000 cards issued in Royal Greenwich alone, equating in size to eight football pitches, this simple move will have a real impact. We could not have secured this end result without a good relationship with our supplier: we provided the idea, Spectrum developed the biodegradable library ticket - and now have a product which is attractive to many library services, and not just those managed by GLL.”
Buying books
Diana says: “We spend around £1.5m on books and e-materials each year. These funds are ring fenced and will not be reallocated towards the end of the year, so we can provide customers with a constant supply of new books throughout the year.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
