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Library shared services

News

Essex County and Thurrock libraries announce they are joining The Libraries Consortium

22 July 2020

Over 6 million new items of stock for Essex libraries.Essex County Council has today announced that both Essex and Thurrock Libraries will join The Libraries Consortium (TLC), the UK’s largest library consortium made up of 18 other library authorities.As part of the Essex Libraries Consultation in 2019, respondents told us they wanted an increase in the number of titles available to borrow from Essex Libraries. By joining the consortium, Essex residents will have access to over 6 million items of stock via the shared TLC library catalogue, including books, e-books, e-magazines and audio books. This will be in addition to the current 1.9 million titles Essex Libraries already has available. Joining the consortium means an upgrade of the existing library management system (LMS) which will be managed by SirsiDynix. The new LMS system will provide an enriched, modern and interactive library customer experience such as access to the service 24/7 on any mobile device, and customer alerts and text messages. It will be a single digital platform, enabling customers to engage with other library users, post reviews, book events, follow their favourite authors, and make recommendations.

Libraries-a shared services success story

Libraries systems appear to be one of the success stories of shared services in local government. At July 2019 over 90 Library authorities (around 45%) were part of one kind of shared Library Management System (LMS) shared service. As many library authorities are already shared services it means that over half of the UK councils are in a shared LMS. Over a quarter of UK *Library* authorities (representing a higher share of councils) share a library system. Some like the selms consortium and The Libraries Consortium are very large indeed. Some shared services, like the September 2015 contract for a library system for Wales, are national in scope. The Welsh initiative anticipates savings of 60-70%.

Consortium case studies

SELMS Consortium

SELMS Consortium - reflecting our shared values of customer service, value for money and innovation. Hilary Ballard, DCMS Library blog. 1 November 2018. SELMS consortium manager Hilary Ballard writes about the project’s development, and the benefits it offers today.

“[SELMS] supports more than 600,000 borrowers, issuing over 18 million items a year, from over 6 million items of stock.
The LMS consortium solution has certainly enabled partners to achieve considerable discounts, from shared bibliographic resources, to reducing the technical burden on system configuration and management. One partner reports an annual saving of over £81,000 and another has cut their system costs by 50%.”

Libraries Consortium (was the London Libraries Consortium -LLC)

London Libraries Consortium: partnership working

Case study from:Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Part of:Libraries shaping the future: toolkit and case studies and Library services Published:30 November 2016

“The London Libraries Consortium (LLC) is a business partnership of 18 London public library services committed to delivering excellence and providing value for money. This is is done by sharing resources in IT, stock management, staff development, training and using shared contract opportunities.

The LLC’s vision is to be “the leading player in the success of the nation’s libraries; a powerhouse for new ideas for what libraries can deliver and the way that they work; and the most efficient and cost-effective provider of shared libraries support services.”

Welsh Libraries consortium

Welsh Public Libraries Select SirsiDynix Symphony to Support Nationwide Library System.

SirsiDynix Press Release November 2016

“The new Wales system allows patrons to use a single card to check out materials from any public library location, rather than restricting users only to the local authority to which they are registered. In addition to the benefit of expanding patron access, the move from individual, local systems to a single, unified system will save authorities up to 70% on automation costs”.

LibrariesWest.

LibrariesWest. Gov.uk Case study. December 2015

“LibrariesWest is an established partnership between 7 neighbouring library services in the south west of England. In July 2015, Dorset County Council and the Borough of Poole joined existing members, resulting in a ‘coast to coast’ service. Somerset County Council (SCC) is the lead council for the partnership and employs a small number of staff to deliver shared services. Staff costs are shared between the partners proportional to their size based on the population served. The consortium is managed by a board compromising of the heads of service of the member authorities. A consortium agreement governs the management of LibrariesWest and outlines the scope of activity and responsibilities within it, and a Strategic Plan sets out the direction of travel and priority areas of activity. The partnership was established initially to share LMS and Bibliographical Services Unit, but has grown over the years to deliver partnership working in other areas such as shared marketing initiatives and activities, staff training and a shared public enquiry service”.
consortium

Single digital presence for UK public libraries

Digital transformation for UK public libraries five approaches to a ‘single digital presence

A report by the British Library for Arts Council England and Carnegie UK Trust. June 2019

From the Press Release:

New research proposes five options for a digital presence for public libraries Thu 6 Jun 2019. A new report from the British Library, commissioned by Arts Council England and the Carnegie UK Trust, has set out five possible options for digital transformation for UK public libraries.

The recommendations paper, Digital Transformations for UK public libraries: five approaches to a ‘Single Digital Presence ’ , sets out what a national online platform (or “single digital presence”) for public libraries could look like, what it could be used for and how such an offering might fit in with existing digital library systems.The British Library undertook a year-long enquiry to examine a range of options for such a platform and has identified five potential models that could enable public libraries to benefit fully from recent technological developments and to engage new and existing users at local and national level. These are:

  1. Deep Shared Infrastructure – a common, centralised Library Management System, procured at a UK wide level and run as a single piece of technology serving all libraries. Such interventions are rare at national level, though the Republic of Ireland has recently introduced such a system.
  2. UK wide Content Discovery – an aggregator at UK national level of free-to-view digital content from libraries, archives and other public collections. Example include Gallica in France, Trove in Australia, Finna in Finland and the Digital Public Library of America in the USA.
  3. Unified Digital Lending – a single, publicly-run service devoted to the free digital ‘lending’ of books and other copyright content that would otherwise only be available on a commercial basis. An example is eReolen in Denmark.
  4. Safe Social Space – a user-led digital platform for the people who love libraries, replicating the community spaces they visit and work in as a complementary alternative to commercial social media services. No exact national equivalent currently exists, though emergent services such as Library Planet and Lit Hub offer analogies as digital places where library users and book lovers can gather and interact.
  5. One Library Brand – an intervention to create and promote a single ‘library brand’ at cross-UK scale: potentially applicable in both the digital and physical realms and consistent with any of the above propositions.

Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016 to 2021

Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016 to 2021”, DCMS December 2016

The Libraries Taskforce’s role is to provide leadership and help to reinvigorate the public library sector in England, as well as showcasing and promoting the excellent work already happening in libraries across the country. We were asked by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Local Government Association (LGA) to develop this vision for the future of public libraries in England

“Supporting the development of the digital offer of libraries.” is action point 20 in the Task Force action plan

Explore the feasibility of a shared national digital platform for public libraries in England (Single Library Digital Presence) and then identify ways to develop, operate and fund it”

National Digital Platform for Wales

“One stop portal for Welsh Libraries – you can find out what’s happening in libraries, search for books, browse a wide range of online resources, join online, locate your nearest library, ask tricky questions, and lots more. This website has been created and designed as part of the Welsh Government’s support for libraries.
https://libraries.wales/

Essential Digital Infrastructure for Public Libraries in England.

A plan for moving forward.Prepared by BiblioCommons November 24, 2015. Commissioned by The Society of Chief Librarians in collaboration with The Reading Agency With funding from Arts Council England. (Also known as the "Bibliocommons report”)

“This report argues that a standards-based digital platform is the only viable technology for realising recent strategic goals articulated by leaders for England’s public libraries. The platform would allow libraries and their partners to innovate, collaborate and share in ways they cannot now do. The report further argues that the primary mode of service on this platform must be co-production – among library authorities, and among library staff, national and local partners, and importantly, end users. We show how new digital divides have made the mission of libraries – literacy, learning, and community inclusion – as relevant as it ever was. And that in order to provide an energetic response, libraries must invite their users into their digital spaces: their catalogues, their websites, their ebook readers, their online events calendars. We argue that these two measures, a standards-based digital platform and co-production of services, will reinvigorate libraries and create substantial, tangible outcomes in literacy, digital and social inclusion, health, education, and economic participation.”

Sieghart on a national infrastructure for (English) public libraries

See:Future libraries, William Sieghart LGA website 19 June 2014

“It is possible to strengthen the service nationally without losing the local approach. My strong view is that part of the answer can be found through offering a digital network for libraries, which could include a single management system, one library card valid in all libraries in England,……Once set up, this network could also be a vehicle for improving the leadership of, and vision for, libraries; more joined-up procurement; the sharing of best practice and encouraging change – without conflicting with the need for local approaches. It could give users access to a much wider choice of materials…”

A national service for discovery and delivery of academic journal articles

Access to research

From January 2014, over 1.5 million academic articles are available, free of charge, in participating public libraries across the UK. Students, independent researchers and small businesses can now access many of the world’s best academic papers through their local libraries, a result of a unique collaboration between librarians and publishers, who have made their journal content available for free.

Failed national initiatives

The following initiatives failed to get traction and have been abandoned.

Bookmark your Library

This provides information on public libraries across the UK and includes a link to the national catalogue Fab Libraries launched in 2012

Fab Libraries

FABLibraries provides access to more than 149 UK public library catalogues in a single search. It will link you to the library’s own website, tell you if it is available so you can get your local library to borrow it for you, and will even show you library locations on a map and the distance from where you are.

OCLC and The Combined Regions (TCR) have announced plans to launch Britain's first freely accessible national public library union catalogue, the first of its kind in the country. (note this has morphed into fabLibraries -see above)

While the objective is to ultimately include all UK public libraries within the catalogue, initially, the project will provide a view of holdings contributed to WorldCat by the 149 local authorities with a current full package subscription to UnityUK. As the UK's only national network for resource sharing, UnityUK participants already provide regular updates of holdings records to WorldCat, which are intended primarily for inter-library loans purposes. This data, as it stands, will be used to provide an initial 'proof of concept' of the union catalogue for review by those UnityUK libraries with a full package subscription in spring 2011 (see timings below).

This preliminary version of the catalogue will then be extended to include other UK public libraries that do not currently have a full package UnityUK subscription and wish to join.

As a pre-requisite for the project, the holdings data of participating libraries will need to be made visible on the open Web through WorldCat.org. Having your collection discoverable virtually anywhere on the Web through Worldcat.org was previously only offered to UnityUK participants as a chargeable service. Now, OCLC will provide this unique benefit as part of a full-package UnityUK subscription and has therefore been factored into the 2011 renewals with these customers.

UK public Library consortia/shared services

Black Country

(Use the Capita Library system)

The Black Country sits at the heart of England and covers 356 sq. It is home to over 1.1 m people.

Local Authorities included:

  • Dudley Metropolitan Borough
  • Sandwell Metropolitan Borough
  • Walsall Metropolitan Borough
  • Wolverhampton City,

Selected the Sierra Library system for : Innovative Interfaces Global Ltd Award notice: 12 February 2015. NOTE: This contract was cancelled and a new tender published in 2016 with the award going to Capita.

Bedfordshire

(Use the Axiell (was DS) Galaxy Library Management System)

  • Bedford Borough
  • Central Bedfordshire

EMLIB

(Procured SirsiDynix in May 2014)

A partnership of 6 East Midlands authorities:

  • Leicestershire
  • Derby City
  • Derbyshire
  • Nottingham City
  • Inspire (Nottinghamshire)
  • Rutland

EMLIB is open to other authorities requesting to join the consortium.

Gloucestershire and Swindon

(Based on the Capita -Chorus hosted system)

Gloucestershire County Council and Swindon Borough Council will use Capita’s library management software (press release September 2013)

  • Gloucestershire
  • Swindon

Greater Manchester

(Use the Civica Spydus Library Management System)

  • Blackburn with Darwen
  • Blackpool
  • Bolton
  • Bury
  • Manchester
  • Oldham
  • Rochdale
  • Salford
  • Stockport
  • Tameside
  • Trafford
  • Wigan

Libraries West

(Selected SirsDynix Symphony in July 2015 -moving from Axiell)

  • Bath & N. E Somerset
  • Bristol
  • Dorset (county)
  • North Somerset
  • Poole (borough of)
  • Somerset
  • South Gloucestershire

Libraries Consortium (was the London Libraries Consortium LLC)

(Selected SirsDynix Symphony in July 2018 -moving from Axiell)

  • Barking & Dagenham
  • Brent
  • Croydon
  • Ealing
  • Enfield
  • Essex County
  • Hackney
  • Harrow
  • Havering
  • Kingston
  • Lewisham
  • Luton Culture
  • Merton
  • Newham
  • Redbridge
  • Sutton
  • Thurrock
  • Tower Hamlets
  • Waltham Forest
  • Wandsworth

Scottish Consortium of Public Libraries (SCoPL)

  • Angus
  • Perth & Kinross
  • Aberdeen City
  • Aberdeenshire
  • North Ayrshire
  • High Life Highland

Following a procurement exercise carried out by Tayside Procurement Consortium on behalf of the Scottish Consortium of Public Libraries (SCoPL) consisting of, Angus, Perth & Kinross, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and North Ayrshire councils as well as High Life Highland, the consortium has awarded a contract worth £1.5 million for a new library management system to Civica

Selms

(Based on the Civica -Spydus- Library Management System)

  • Brighton and Hove
  • Buckinghamshire
  • Camden
  • Hertfordshire
  • Kent
  • Medway
  • Milton Keynes
  • Reading
  • Richmond
  • Slough
  • Southend-on-Sea
  • West Berkshire
  • Windsor and Maidenhead

SPINE

Selected Civica (Spydus library system) in 2012)

  • Cambridge
  • Suffolk
  • Norfolk (associate member in 2017)

Tri-Borough (London)

SirsiDynix Symphony system . London Boroughs of:

  • Hammersmith and Fulham
  • Kensington & Chelsea
  • Westminster

Wales

Welsh Government has awarded a single-supplier framework contract to SirsiDynix, one of the largest library management system vendors. The move could also save local authorities up to 70% on current costs, with all local authorities adopting one single system rather than each having individual ones, as is the current practice. The Welsh Government has announced plans for an all-Wales library card, which would allow users to access library services wherever they are in Wales. From the Tender notice (12 January 2015)

Supply and Implementation of Library Management System for Public Library Authorities in Wales.

Local authorities included:

  • Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
  • Bridgend County Borough Council
  • Caerphilly County Borough Council
  • Cardiff Council
  • Carmarthenshire County Council
  • Ceredigion County Council
  • City and County of Swansea
  • Conwy County Borough Council
  • Denbighshire County Council
  • Flintshire County Council
  • Gwynedd County Council
  • Isle of Anglesey County Council
  • Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
  • Monmouthshire County Council
  • Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council
  • Newport City Council
  • Pembrokeshire County Council
  • Powys County Council
  • Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council
  • Torfaen County Borough Council
  • Vale of Glamorgan Council
  • Wrexham County Borough Council
  • Grwp Llandrillo Menai

Yorkshire and Humber

Selected SirsiDynix 2019 under Framework Agreement for 15 authorities from the Yorkshire & Humberside region. At August 2020 the authorities highlighted in bold are already using SirsiDynix or have committed to moving to SirsiDynix under the framework agreement.

  • Barnsley
  • Bradford
  • Calderdale
  • Doncaster
  • East Riding
  • Hull
  • Kirklees
  • Leeds
  • N. Lincolnshire
  • N.E. Lincolnshire
  • North Yorkshire
  • Rotherham
  • Sheffield
  • Wakefield
  • York
shared_services.1601040186.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/09/25 16:23 by 81.132.75.197