South East Library Management System
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The South East Library Management System (SELMS) is a multi authority library consortium in the South East of England, UK, which allows for the interoperability of their services, catalogues, and library cards.[1]. The consortium serves over 600,000 users per year, handling upwards of 18 million items in the same period.[2]
SELMS operates in 14 local authorities throughout the South East of England[2], albeit with the notable exception of many parts of London, though the London Borough of Camden and Southwark are included in the scheme. The consortium has used the Spydus Library Management System operated by Civica since its inception.[1][3]
It is Europe's largest library consortium.[4]
Coverage[edit]
Starting with an initial 6 library authorities linking together in 2005[5][6] the SELMS consortium now covers 14 authorities. These are counties, unitary authorities, and other bodies that manage libraries on a city or county level, these are:
- Brighton and Hove
- Buckinghamshire
- Camden
- Hertfordshire
- Kent
- Medway
- Milton Keynes
- Reading
- Richmond
- Slough
- Southend-on-Sea
- Southwark
- West Berkshire
- Windsor and Maidenhead[2]
These authorities are referred to internally as 'library authority partners'[2], and together they form a network of almost 300 library branches across the combined coverage area, with access to over 6 million items.[2] [6]
Within this network, a service user can use their library card from any one of the library authority partners in the jurisdiction of any of the other partners, and be able to borrow books the same as if they were registered with that library directly as user data is shared across authorities.[7][8]
SELMS have a contract with BDS (Bibliographic Data Services) for catalogue record metadata and book cover images for their discovery layer.[4]
Service fees[edit]
Service users can opt to reserve books for collection at a local library from any library in the SELMS network[9], but this can sometimes incur fees. For example, Brighton and Hove libraries charge £3 to reserve a book through SELMS[10], while charging £1 to reserve a book from their branches only.[11] Similarly, Buckinghamshire libraries charge £3 to reserve a book through SELMS, whilst costing only 60p (£0.60) to reserve a book within the authority[12]
The higher reservation charges have faced criticism from Southend users seeing their authority changed from unitary to joining the network.[13]
Service fees are not incurred for returning books to a library in the SELMS network, though books being returned late will incur the standard fee for the authority the book is being returned to.[citation needed]
Staff[edit]
As of 1 November 2011, SELMS itself only employs two full-time staff members; Hilary Ballard and Donna Henderson.[1]
There is a lack of data regarding how many people are employed across libraries in the SELMS partners, as generally these staff are employed by the town council rather than the library itself.[citation needed]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "SELMS Consortium - reflecting our shared values of customer service, value for money and innovation - DCMS Libraries". dcmslibraries.blog.gov.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "SELMS | About us". selms.spydus.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ↑ Library + Information Update. 5. Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals. 2006. p. 4 – via Google Books. Search this book on
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "SELMS in new 3 year deal". BDSLife (Spring 2014): 3. 2014 – via Issuu.
- ↑ DCMS (2010). "The modernisation review of public libraries: A policy statement" (PDF).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "SELMS: Going from strength to strength through partnership with Civica Libraries" (PDF). Civica.com.
- ↑ "Using the Richmond Card for libraries". London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
- ↑ Medway Council. "Libraries Privacy Notice". www.medway.gov.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
- ↑ "SELMS | FAQ". selms.spydus.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ↑ "How to borrow items from other libraries". www.brighton-hove.gov.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ↑ "Borrow, renew and reserve library items". www.brighton-hove.gov.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ↑ "Library charges and concessions". Buckinghamshire Council. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ↑ "Fears over new prices to loan library books". Echo. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
External links[edit]
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