We received an impressive response from publishers to our Invitation to Tender. Bids for nearly 50 resources were submitted, and from these our marking panel of public librarians have selected a dozen which they have recommended to be taken forward.
We are currently involved in negotiating the licences with the successful publishers, and are aiming to have the agreements ready for subscribers by the start of September 2010.
There will be more details about the chosen resources soon, but we’re sure that they will be welcome additions to your libraries’ online collections.
Thank you to all those who offered their time, knowledge and expertise to help with the marking of the bids.
On March 4th we held an event for publishers, suppliers and owners of digital content, to introduce the project to them.
The presentations from the event, and a summary of the question and answer session, can be found on the Publishers’ workshop page.
The slideshow presentations from the regional consultations workshops are now available on the Workshops page.
If you cannot access them, or would like more information, please contact me.
Our regional consultation workshops got off to a successful start in Manchester yesterday, with a good turn out from public libraries and archives across the northwest region.
We learned a lot about what public libraries require in terms of digital content, and the practical issues they face in areas such as banding, licensing and offering remote access to resources.
It also gave us a more realistic idea about the types of resources they would like to see made available. To clear up any confusion, I should make clear that the resources we are looking to license in the autumn will be in addition to those already available through Reference Online; they won’t replace them.
Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday: it was great to meet you all, and we value your contribution.
There are still places available at forthcoming workshops. You can register here.
Invitation to tender to provide Scottish public libraries with access to digital content
The objective of this ITT is to provide public library services in Scotland with the opportunity to license a range of digital content in a variety of formats and subject areas that benefit Scotland’s people, enrich Scotland’s cultural, educational and economic landscape and demonstrate value for money for SLIC’s local authority public library membership.
This ITT invites service providers to tender for the provision of online information services to public libraries throughout Scotland. The service will be available to members of the public using public access PCs within public libraries, off site via secure authentication log in and to all library staff who will use the service in the course of their work. This ITT invites proposals for general information and reference materials, business information, e-books, newspapers and multimedia resources.
In recognition of the harsh economic circumstances under which the ITT is published, a particular focus of the tender is the demonstration of value for money, usability of online information services and usage of those services.
To request a copy of the full Invitation to Tender document, please contact Liam Earney at l.earney@jisc.ac.uk.
The deadline for proposals is midday, Monday 15th February, 2010.