Tim Coates on ‘major scandal’ in the public library service
Posted by: Alan Gibbons in UncategorizedFrom the Good Library Blog
A major scandal in the public library service
In the past few weeks I have called for a total review of book supply to public libraries. Following publication of this call I have received information that library suppliers have agreed book supply contracts at 47.5% discount off the cover price of books, so long as the supplier can make the selection of which books are supplied. These contracts apply to all the books supplied. The commitment, written or unwritten is that the supplier will select the best, most appropriate books for the local library, in the field.
There are, nowadays, only a handful suppliers, most of them are owned by the two national wholesalers. The value of the supply contracts is £90m per annum
You don’t have to be too experienced to know that such a level of discount narrows the field of books that can be selected by wholesalers and suppliers to a very few new publications and a wide range of remainder stock. It is not hard to see what might be happening to make these contracts profitable. It is not possible to work comprehensively or appropriately at such a level of discount, as any small publisher will confirm,
If this is true then it represents a major breach of public trust and a total failure of professional conduct. It needs to be investigated, urgently and whatever malpractice is in hand should be stopped immediately
This is really serious.
Councils and suppliers always claim that these deals are subject to what they call ‘commercial confidentiality’ — they should not be– they should be open to proper public scrutiny otherwise situations of this nature will occur.
The shame is that the possibly virtuous idea of ’supplier selection’ for public libraries has been completely misunderstood and distorted into this nonsense.
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February 8th, 2010 at 6:57 am
I would expect the Library Service to respond to users’ requests locally about books they wish to read and am horrified to learn that there are major incentives for them to forfeit that freedom by entering into deals with those who have a monopoly of supply. The result would be akin to censorship. It is scandalous.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:31 am
I am delighted to receive news from Swindon’s Library Service this morning confirming that :
(i) they have achieved good discounts through library suppliers as they are part of a regional consortium;
(ii) the stock they buy is selected by the library staff and by requests from customers.