Hi Keith,
We differentiate between requests for items in stock and requests for items
not in stock that require our having order from suppliers for precisely the
reason you state. It isn't logical to have a public library standard that is
dependent on the throughput of authors, publishers and/or suppliers.
One of the reports-back on our double covers is quoting a 2017 publication
date for a title(!!!) it's difficult to see what we could do about that
short of writing the book ourselves and running a few copies off on the
office printer.
HTH
Steven
Steven Heywood
Systems Manager
Rochdale Library Service
Wheatsheaf Library
Baillie Street
Rochdale OL16 1JZ
Tel: (01706) 864967
[log in to unmask]
http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/libraries
http://libraries.rochdale.gov.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Patterson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 August 2005 14:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Public Library Standard 5iii: percentage book requests met
within 30 days
Dear All,
I wonder how other library services are dealing with this standard? We
just fail to reach the standard of 85% - our actual for 04/05 is 83.4%.
We have looked at every stage in the supply chain and made improvements -
there is little more we can do from that end. We collect data for this
standard by means of a sample, rather than every request.
Our downfall is that we take pre-publication requests, and this skews the
result without us having the means in our power to improve. When we know
we are purchasing a book for a request, we fast-track it through ours and
our supplier's systems. But obviously we order books pre-publication, and
do not know exactly which ones will be requested, Harry Potter etc apart.
In any case, the problem is primarily caused by taking pre-publication
requests, rather than our supply times once published.
We are determined to continue to offer pre-publication request service, as
our customers make good use of this service, and we are not going to
reduce our service quality to meet an externally-imposed performance
standard. I believe that when the standards were originally introduced,
there was talk that some way would be devised to allow for best practice
such as ours that appeared to show under-performance relative to other
library services that do not take requests for books not yet published.
What do others do? I would be grateful for all responses, and will
summarise for the list.
Thanks in advance,
Keith Patterson
Senior Libraries Manager (Performance & Communications)
St Helens Library & Information Services
tel: 01744 677448
email: [log in to unmask]
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