Outsourcing specialist is ‘hub’ for Europe’s largest library management system
Civica is helping to transform library services as well as creating a template for sharing of other departmental services through the South East Library Management (SELMS) consortium which has now expanded to eleven member authorities providing services to over five million people.
Civica - a market leader in specialist systems and outsourcing services that help organisations improve service delivery and efficiency – is providing the SELMS consortium members with a central library management service as well as ‘facilitator’ support.
The company’s dual role has transformed the authorities’ ability to share library stock and ICT resources helping to extract more from their ICT investment and greatly reduce administrative workloads: with the additional consortium members, annual transactions will exceed 30 million, which represents more than a tripling of the original workload and more than 3,000 users overall.
The SELMS consortium, originally formed by Civica and a group of six library authorities, has, with new members added in 2010, become Europe’s largest library system. Through the company’s ‘hub’ role and its Spydus library management software system, members have been able to automate many of their local libraries’ functions and build web-based lending and mobile access models.
The company has worked in close collaboration with the founder authorities – lead authority Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council Brighton and Hove City Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Milton Keynes Council, West Berkshire Council, Wokingham Borough Council, - since 2006. Three more authorities - Medway Council, Kent County Council and the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham - joined in 2008, and SELMS was expanded again this year when two further members - Hertfordshire County Council and Slough Borough Council - joined in April.
Civica believes the consortium’s success could also provide directors of different local government services with a clear business case for service transformation as well as a practical framework and common processes for making such change happen.
Through SELMS’ information sharing structure, members pool their expertise, circulate their stock faster and increase their records capacity. In addition, through the consortium’s Information Group, members develop and share best practice in technical aspects of existing and new projects as well as receiving practical advice on new government or regulatory guidelines.
These improvements - marshalled through members’ monthly meetings with Civica’s experts - are helping deliver better customer services and collection systems, increased accessibility and staff productivity.
In addition, each member authority is able to set up innovative tailor-made service capabilities while respecting budgetary constraints and local library identities. Civica has drawn on its world-wide expertise in providing support to the consortium model: the company manages over 1500 libraries world-wide.
Diane Chilmaid, SELMS chair and Business Support Manager for Kent County Council’s Libraries & Archives service, said: “SELMS member authorities have a learning forum and library management system enabling them to improve customer service and provide a basis for service innovations. We believe that the consortium provides a model for best practice and a framework for different library authorities to share their resources effectively too.”
Civica libraries director, Simon Parkes, commented: “With the continued tightening of public finances, consortium models are going to become essential in sharing resources and common systems to radically change service costs. We’re a facilitator as well as a service provider for SELMS, promoting a forum for members and technical innovations - as much as providing a managed service platform.
“We see the SELMS consortium as a robust and pragmatic template for different departments and regions – not just library authorities – to build effective shared services programmes that might otherwise have struggled to demonstrate a return on investment or map an effective path to transformation and the common processes needed.”