Emeryville, CA—The Black Country Libraries Partnership in the West Midlands region of the UK has selected the Sierra Library Services Platform and Encore Discovery to unite operations and user services for its four public library authorities. Innovative will provide the authorities of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton a single, hosted implementation of Sierra and the Encore Discovery solution, which will operate from the company's Data Centre in Dublin, Ireland. Together, the combined system will give over 175,000 registered library users access to a collection of more than 2.7 million items. At present the libraries circulate 7.6 million items each year. The authorities are moving to Sierra from the following systems: Dudley and Walsall, Galaxy provided by Axiell; Sandwell, Spydus provided by Civica; and Wolverhampton, Alto provided by Capita.
Says Robert Johnson, Head of Libraries and Community Recreation at Wolverhampton City Council: "We are delighted to be working with Innovative on a new joint Library Management System that will provide library users across the Black Country access to a much wider range and quantity of stock through the shared consortium catalogue. In the current climate, libraries must reshape their services to fit the new economic reality. The consortium offers real opportunities for joined up working, sharing best practice and joint procurement to create a cost-effective and efficient service that delivers real benefits to customers."
"Innovative provides the right solutions for libraries that want to take advantage of efficiency of scale," says Bill Schickling, SVP of Global Sales. "By moving to a single system the four authorities will give their borrowers access to the resources of all of the libraries in the region while also allowing library staff to develop and manage their collections in concert. This selection also underlines Innovative's full support of libraries in the UK and Ireland, in terms of service and relevant features."
The Black Country Libraries Partnership will also take advantage of Innovative's Managed Services. Innovative staff will be responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the Sierra and Encore applications.
About the Black Country Libraries Partnership
The Black Country is home to 1.1 million residents at the heart of England and is comprised of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. In 2011, the four Chief Executives of these councils formed the Black Country Libraries Partnership to realize cost efficiencies, generate local employment opportunities, and improve the quality and breadth of library services. A key initiative of the Partnership was to procure a single LMS system for the entire region of libraries.
About Innovative
Innovative (www.iii.com) is dedicated to providing leading technology solutions and services that empower libraries and enrich their users worldwide. Innovative offers one of the broadest and most complete portfolio of library automation products on the market today. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, Innovative serves thousands of libraries in 66 countries and has offices around the world.
