“Purely in efficiency terms,” the report noted, “we believe that without a national library service with the authority and responsibility for directly delivering library services across England, it will be difficult actively to drive and sustain performance improvement across the library community in the longer term.”
The PKF consulting firm’s Public Libraries: Efficiency and Stock Supply Chain Review, released in July, was supported by U.K. Minister of Culture David Lammy, who said in a July 29 statement, “For libraries to be able to provide the best possible selection of books they need to purchase them at the most economical cost. . . . But with 149 different public library authorities operating numerous different supply systems, it is no surprise that some get better results than others. I want to support libraries to strive for a universal top standard.”
In a joint statement, the two commissioning bodies pledged to work with libraries and local authorities to examine and implement the report’s recommendations.
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals issued a cautious approval, but warned that the report covers little new ground. CILIP Head of Policy and Governance Guy Daines noted, “In many ways the PKF report tells us what we already know about stock procurement. The main points about good practice have been made before.” CILIP characterized some of PKF’s general comments as “questionable and simplistic,” such as the suggestion that service efficiency can be measured simply by correlating resource infusion with customer satisfaction.
Posted August 5, 2005.