Digital Change Communities at the heart of service delivery

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Digital ChangeCommunities at the heart of
service delivery

• David Potts
• Project Manager Libraries
• The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

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Agenda

• Action Plan for Libraries
• The MLA Library Loans Online Feasibility Study
• Next steps

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MLAs Action Plan for Public Libraries

• Five year plan
• Four key challenges
• Research and Evidence
• Best Practice
• Innovation
• Digital Change
• Three themes
• Excellence
• Communities
• Learning

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Digital Change

• Increased bandwidth
• JANET
• Manage digital data environments
• PNDS
• Web 2.0
• National membership
• One card?
• Libraries Online
• Peoples Network Service
• Reference Online
• Library Loans Online?

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Web scale library-like services

• How many librarians were involved?
• Where are libraries and librarians having web
  scale impact?
• Could a public libraries killer app help?

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Library Loans Online
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Accessing books in your local library

• Searching conducted in library by user or staff
• Search can be conducted at home
• Search across all libraries in the local
  authority
• Physical visit required

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Accessing books from other library authorities

• Search conducted by library staff
• Search can be conducted from home
• Charged for service
• Physical visit still required

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The public libraries connection
Union Catalogue
ILL
LMS
Public Libraries
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The current system

• Good Points
• It works!
• Established mechanism
• Staff familiarity
• Clear audit trail
• Established agreement between all library
  authorities

• Less Good
• Can take many weeks to fulfil requests
• Back office staff intensive
• Underused
• Requires dedicated transport system
• Charging discrepancies

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The changing nature of service delivery

• Quintessential resource
• Everyone loans books
• Public association
• Core business, but with new competitors
• Out of Print books no longer a USP
• Book Rental
• Is it accessible enough?
• Can libraries afford rigid control of core
  assets?
• What if you could only use the shops/banks/cash
  machines in your area?
• Could search be controlled by users?
• Consumer can bank, shop, book a holiday, buy
  travel tickets, rent a DVD from the desktop

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What if?
Public library stock of England (purchased by the
People of England)
Public Libraries
People of England
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The Creative Archive License Group (1)

• BBC, CH4, OU, BFI opening up access to their
  archive material for personal use
• History of controlling assets
• Newspapers/TV listings
• Cinemas/Video shops
• CALG as another business model for distributing
  material

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The Creative Archive License Group (2)

• ..if we really are going to seize the potential
  of the digital world then we need to develop
  entirely new business models for delivering
  images, information and stories to audiences

This time its not just revenues that are at
stake, but a far bigger prize the whole realm of
public interest and a chance to radically
enhance and enrich the lives of citizens across
the UK That being the case we simply cannot
allow the lazy dogma of the past to blind us to
the possibilities now on offer to literally
transform our collective future.
..when public resources have been used to create
content, then the overwhelming objective should
be to maximise the benefit of that content to the
people who helped pay for its creation in the
first place
..we need to come up with solutions which are
fit for purpose in a longer timeframe, not just
a series of quick-fixes which will inevitably
amount to little more than a series of messy
compromises
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How might this work?

• One interface to national holdings.
• One simple search
• Borrow now
• Payment
• Standard service
• Premium service
• Post Office/other delivers
• Nearest library
• Home / prepaid envelope
• A service that is shaped around the lives of
  individuals
• Multitude of delivery channels

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Potential benefits

• A nationally marketable service for all public
  libraries
• A service that is tailored to the user and modern
  lifestyles
• A 21st Century style delivery
• New ways for library stock to work
• Book prizes
• National campaigns
• OP republishing?
• Windows to stock categories (e.g. large print)

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The Library Loans Online Feasibility Study

• Two broad sections
• Professional issues
• Implementation models
• Stakeholder interviews
• Six month study
• Publishing?

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Key Findings (1)

• Can it happen?
• YES!
• Pieces are in place
• Stock/union catalogues etc.
• New ways of accessing live catalogues
• Transaction technologies
• Library staff
• Delivery (PO or other)
• Access to internet (Peoples Network or
  home/work)

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Key findings (2)

• Total support for a national Library Loans Online
  system
• LLO to be a charged for service
• Current ILL costs 15 per item
• Membership divide
• Need for user research
• Need for sub-national pilot
• Need for one organisation to lead

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Next steps

• Construct Business Case
• User research
• Not focus exclusively on library users
• Office blocks etc
• Assess appetite for Library Loans Online
• Willingness to pay
• How much?

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Who might use Library Loans Online?
Will never use libraries
Non-library users
Occasional library users
Core library users
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Finally..

• The road ahead
• How can we work backwards and redesign library
  process around the user in control principle?
• Communities at the heart of service delivery
• Contact/Feedback david.potts_at_mla.gov.uk