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February 7, 2010
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.
Posted by Perkins at February 7, 2010 9:26 AM
Comments
Libraries for the people - yes - that is what Andrew Carnegie would say as I found at http://myamazingpeople.com/en/885/making-money-and-amazing-charity-andrew-carnegies-life/
Posted by: Muso at February 8, 2010 5:17 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.
Posted by: Shirley Burnham at February 8, 2010 6:59 AM
The question to ask at the council meeting is "Who is making the decision about the selection of books in the libraries: is it local staff or is it the supplier?". In many councils, it is the supplier and the danger is, as Shirley says, that the supplier has a strong financial incentive to select some books rather than others.
Officers and librarians will tell you that 'supplier selection' has become common practice. Indeed it has, but that does not make it right. What should be happening is that the supplier should make recommendations out of those works which are being published, but the decision should remain with the local library staff. It is their responsbility to ensure they meet the local need.
Pressure to give large discounts has got out of hand. Yet again councillors have been left out of the complete picture and been told that discount was all that mattered. Hence this unseemly development. It can easily be put right, but only if we address the subject and talk about it.
Posted by: Tim Coates at February 8, 2010 9:05 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.
That's excellent. Perhaps everyone might write to their Head of Libraries and Cabinet Member, to see whether they will respond as positively.
Posted by: Shirley Burnham at February 8, 2010 9:34 AM
This is the insidious end product of the break down of all formal pricing structures in the book industry. Followed through it actually begs the question of what purpose library authorities if they merely become administrators of a pre selected range?
In the 15th century when feudalism broke down we had something called 'bastard feudalism' when the price nexus became the core element in feudal relationships. The result was chaos and civil war. We are seeing the same thing in the British economy now when groupings of large suppliers are buying state procurement,controlling what goes in and using the monopoly supply thus procured to lever their suppliers. The result is an anarchic situation and one finally destructive to the library service and ultimately to UK publishing amongst other industries. This private monopolism is antithetic to every form of competition or real innovation.
Posted by: Hugh Andrew at February 8, 2010 6:10 PM