Hampshire County Council Plans 21st Century Library Services With Help From Civica’s Spydus Management System
County’s library service foresees online accounts and customised lending for up to one million customers
Putney, December 5, 2006 – Civica plc, one of the UK’s most experienced providers of consulting, software and services for the public sector, is to deliver cutting edge library management services in a five year public-private partnership agreement with Hampshire County Council Library and Information Services. The new contract, which runs from September 2006, will be based on Civica’s internationally successful Spydus library management system.
The new partnership will support the Library and Information Services’ drive to deliver lending and education services to reflect 21st century tastes. The Spydus library management system will underpin new customer lending channels such as web-based, individual borrowing profiles. There will also be contact centre support for customers of the county’s local discovery centres as well as mobile library units serving rural areas such as the New Forest. The contact centres will use real time customer records.
The agreement will also help Hampshire Library and Information Services to deliver enhanced operations in line with Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) targets for improved accessibility, customer service and efficiency.
Once completed, the robust library management platform will also connect department’s service operations more closely with the council’s main corporate CRM and financial management systems. This will provide a transparent view of the Library and Information Service’s financial performance, in line with the addressing the government’s wider Efficiency Agenda for local authorities.
Hampshire Library and Information Services serves over one million people and 300,000 regular borrowers across the county. Its 54 branch ‘discovery centres’ and 19 mobile units are among the most advanced and innovative sites in the country.
The service’s management team chose to partner with Civica because of the company’s successful record in public-private library management programmes in Australia and the Asia Pacific region and the significant value provided by the Spydus system. The council also recognised group company Civica Services’ track record in providing software licensing services to the Central Buying Consortium, of which Hampshire County Council is a prominent member.
The Spydus system applications will be hosted by Hampshire County Council’s ICT Services and Library and Information Services, with support from Civica’s technical support team. The Spydus platform will be implemented by Hampshire Library Services and Civica over the next year.
Civica director Simon Parkes said: “Hampshire has a very good name for excellence in library discovery centres and we are excited to be helping them take their capabilities to the next level. Our management system will support service innovations while delivering the robust administration and performance information they require.”
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