Hi Jamie

Sorry but my reply doesn’t really shed light on the issues you raise but it’s related: I gather that smaller independent booksellers have around 6% of the market in this country compared to around 20-25% in France. Is there the possibility for some form of supplier portal to be set up whereby libraries could buy from smaller booksellers? This could counter the Amazon effect and ensure that a broader range of books make it to our shelves. I’m not happy that supplier selection provides a good range and depth of stock at the moment.

Kind regards

Phil Jones

Academic Liaison Librarian for the Sport & Science Institutes

Information & Learning Services

University of Worcester

From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jamie North
Sent: 11 February 2015 18:53
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fwd: Articles from The Guardian

Hello,

A few weeks ago, I emailed about the closures to libraries following on from the articles in The Bookseller over Christmas and the knock-on effect it has on our suppliers.  I had two lovely responses privately, but actually I thought it would be good to re-ask the question with views coming to the list if you don't mind.  The two responses I received thought I had raised some very valid points and one library authority in the north west of England said they had been discussing this very topic themselves, and the other in northern London agreed that our suppliers had been overlooked by all the stories and articles recently. I wondered if anybody who has seen the Sieghart report can say whether or not any suppliers - be they of books and DVDs especially of course - but also talking books, games, furniture, ebooks etc. are mentioned within it.

Apologies for the re-posting but I think given all the articles recently from the likes of Lincolnshire, triborough and elsewhere that I'd like to hear more how it is affecting them, and I know that the authority I am employed by are really concerned and are keen to do what they can to prevent this happening.  I am aware that one of our big suppliers has effectively ended our contract early because they were losing money.  What does this mean for the wider library community, do private bodies who are running some councils' libraries impact this, and are you worried about losing suppliers?

My original message was thus:

Reading the articles in The Guardian (including the shorter click bait article from this week) recently after the government report made me think about everybody else involved in the supply of materials to libraries. I'm all for libraries getting coffee shops and wifi - the more people through the door means more people borrowing books or DVDs or CDs or ebooks or even e-magazines now. I recently went into a library where locals could pay their bills and heard someone saying they were going to join the library straight away because they didn't know the range of good things they could find there.

What do people on the list know about our suppliers? I have heard that the book suppliers (and one in particular) are struggling with drops in sales and profits because of councils like us cutting their budgets in half, closing branches, not replacing staff.  Our main supplier issued a profit warning last year, made redundancies and now their rate of supply has dropped but they provide an invaluable service (indeed without the suppliers there would be no libraries!). Not just books either - we don't hear much about the cuts affecting DVD suppliers, newsagents, computer systems providers either. Are there still just four companies that provide books to all the country? Are there any thoughts positive or negative about any company who supplies anything to libraries? Email me off list if you wish, it's only for interest and to pass on to my fellow library assistants. Are there ways we can support them as well as vice versa? Only thoughts about this as I was unpacking their boxes today and reading the Guardian article over lunch. Who else do you all rely on who are affected by library cuts?  Would be interested to know your thoughts.

Jamie N