Public libraries - too valuable to lose? Can we do and measure ‘things’ differently?

Public libraries - too valuable to lose? Can we do and measure ‘things’ differently? Mark Norman Coordinator, Rockdale Library and Community Information Services

Rockdale City Council Library & Community Information Services • Rockdale – main library, in ‘temporary’ accommodation in the Town Hall building for 30 years • Arncliffe • Bexley – two days per week • Bexley North • Brighton-le-Sands – two days per week • Sans Souci

Open 224 hours per week • Circulation over 700,000 • Visits over 580,000 • Serving LGA population over 103,000 • Library expenditure over $35.00/capita • Stock over 175,000 • 28.4 EFT staff for six libraries

Rockdale Demographics • 0-14 years 17.4% • 15-29 20.9% • 30-49 30.1% • 50-64 16.4% • 65+ 15.1% • Residents born overseas 44.0% • From countries where English is not the first language 39.0% • Speaking only English at home 58.0%

Rockdale Demographics CALD Communities • Chinese 6.3% (Sydney 3.4%) • Arabic 4.4% (1.7%) • Greek 3.2% (0.7%) • Macedonian 3.0% (0.3%) • Nepalese 2.1% (0.3%) Population forecast • 16.4% growth over next 18 years

Public libraries - too valuable to lose? Yes, and you all know why… Can we do and measure ‘things’ differently? Yes, and here is a summary of how some libraries have been collaborating to: Save budget Share expertise Mentor younger staff Move $ saved to other collections or programs

Julian Boyd said “…libraries can render (their unique services) more usefully by pooling their strengths rather than competing with one another.” • That was in 1942 • Ellen Lupton on collaboration says “… it’s a great idea, • as long as it doesn’t violate my personal work schedule or on my sense of control and authorship.”

So why not collaborate? • distance - no meetings, no travelling, no Skype or videoconferencing • dissension - goals, philosophy and agenda are your own - you do not have to change your views • organisational- you know and work within the confines of your organisation and do not have to work with other organisations • operational - why change what you do, when things have worked well for so long?

So why collaborate at all? • promoting proactive rather than reactive decision making • building relationships and understanding that fosters trust • empowering staff and shifting power downwards • mobilising shared resources (staff, information, authority, funding, expertise) into action to get work done • fostering ownership of problems, responsibility and stewardship • bringing about a paradigm shift in thinking about effective management

So why collaborate at all?The management paradigm shift • From competition to collaboration and consensus • From one correct view to multiple legitimate views • From one right answer to multiple potential solutions • From reactive to proactive and reactive • From fragmentation to integration across boundaries • From ‘them’ (their faults/problems) to ‘us’ (ownership) Yaffee, S (2003)

Collaborative projects • Book selection • Shared cataloguing and end processing • Specialist shelf ready suppliers • Talking Books • Large Print • One LMS

Collaborative Benefits: Major Book and Processing Supplier Fiction titles: $26.00; 28% discount = $16.00 Non Fiction titles: $29.30; 25% disc = $22.00 For a $200,000 collection budget, with a 60 Fiction/40 Non Fiction split, this is 7,500 Fiction and 3,600 Non Fiction titles compared to 4,600 F and 2,750 NF titles before the discounts are applied

Collaborative Benefits: Major Book and Processing Supplier Fiction titles: $26.00; 28% discount = $16.00 Non Fiction titles: $29.30; 25% disc = $22.00 For a $26,000 collection budget with a 60 Fiction/40Non Fiction split, this is 975 Fiction and 475 Non Fiction titles compared to 600 F and 360 N F titles before the discounts are applied

Collaborative Benefits: Major Book and Processing Supplier Fees for cataloguing and end processing For individual libraries were • Fiction: $7.15/item • Non Fiction: $9.14/item • Based on materials budgets from $26,000 to $200,000

Collaborative Cataloguing and Processing Specifications • Standardising cataloguing and processing specifications reduces operating costs for suppliers • The collaborative group established and reviews annually, 30 pages of specifications • Agreed cataloguing standards have (only) 16 specific exceptions, e.g. full Dewey for Australian Aborigines 305.89915; four digits after point for plants; four digits after point for cookery of a country…

Collaborative Benefits: Major Book and Processing Supplier For eight libraries with combined collection budget of $850,000 and agreed cataloguing and end processing standards • Fiction: drops from $7.15 to $4.65/item = 35% discount • Non Fiction: drops from $9.14 to $6.86/item = 25% disc

Collaborative Benefits: Major Book and Processing Supplier • For a $200,000 budget, with a 60F/40NF split, this is $34,875F and $24,696NF, or $59,571 in total for shelf ready materials • Saving = $27,894 on individual library costs • For a $26,000 budget with a 60F/40NF split, this is $4,534F and $3,259NF or $7,793 in total for shelf ready materials • Saving = $3,638 on individual library costs

Collaborative Benefits: Major Book and Processing Supplier • If a library withdraws from the collaborative group, the costs increase, for example • Fiction: from $4.65 to $6.53/item • Non Fiction: from $6.86 to $7.41/item • For a $200,000 budget, this is a loss of $16,000 in discounts • For a $26,000 budget, this is a loss of $2,094 in discounts

Collaborative Benefits: Major Book and Processing Supplier The clear message is • Grow the collaborative group to improve returns • Hold on to members already in the group to avoid price increases • And work together to resolve issues and the desire to ‘go it alone’

Collaborative Benefits: Specialist Cataloguing and Processing Supplier

Collaborative Benefits: Talking Books • In response to the high cost of Talking Books (the average cost being $90 for CDs and $60 for MP3s) due to the ‘Library Edition’ prices, the collaborative group turned to a major retailer to source retail editions • The average price of a Talking Book dropped to $45 for a CD and $35 for MP3 – all shelf ready • This meant that for libraries with $4,000 budget for Talking Books, the number of new titles added to the collection rose from 33CDs, 17MP3s to approximately 66CDs, 28MP3s

Collaborative Benefits: Large Print • Most of the libraries in the collaborative group found they could not afford the largest plan for LP titles and were instead purchasing smaller plans • For example, six libraries were taking out the same plan for 10 titles/month; 120 new titles/year each • By pooling budgets, the collaborative libraries now share a large plan delivering 60 titles/month; 360 new titles/year • This project shares best sellers released each month around the libraries. The benefits of one shared catalogue is that customers can request an intra-library loan for titles held in another library and have them delivered to their ‘home’ library

Collaborative Benefits: One LMS • Six NSW libraries joined the Swift Victoria Library Consortium providing their customers with access to over 550,000 titles in comparison to their smaller individual collections • Customers can request items 24/7 and have them delivered to their ‘home’ library free of charge • In 2010/11, over 90,000 items were provided by intra-library loan, compared to 98,200 ILL requests across all NSW public libraries • Swift NSW libraries averaged 15,000 intra-library loans compared to all NSW libraries averaging 992 ILL items requests

Collaborative Benefits: Bookstores • English language and IELTS supplier – from no discount to any library to 10% discount for collaborative purchases • Graphic Novels supplier – 15% discount for an individual library to 25% discount for collaborative purchases • World Music and Movies – from 10% discount to an individual library to 22% discount for collaborative purchases

The benefits of collaboration for customers • improved access to search a larger collection; request free intra-library loans 24/7; understand and enjoy standardised loans policies and rules (the consortium LMS) • customers using different libraries are familiar with the one LMS • improved growth and development of the individual and consortium collection (shared profiling, selection and shelf-ready services); larger collections (niche collection buying power) • additional staff available to provide customer service and to plan and deliver events and programs

The benefits of collaboration for libraries • better decision-making through shared knowledge and expertise • lowering operating costs provides additional funds for other services • promotes learning across the libraries • decreases positional power in decision-making and engenders staff confidence and morale • positive customer feedback in surveys on library services, collections, programs, events • improves relationships between suppliers and libraries

The benefits of collaboration for suppliers • consistency of workflows through use of agreed cataloguing and end processing standards speeds the throughput of new materials • cataloguing once into libraries Australia • streamlines staff training and scheduling of staff to manage workflows and reduce processing time and costs • agreed budget levels for new materials allows companies to plan their annual anticipated income with more certainty

Thank youQuestions? Making Rockdale a Better City

Public libraries - too valuable to lose? Can we do and measure ‘things’ differently?