Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal issue date and number

E-resources

Free and at their fingertips

Hazel Lauder updates us on the provision of free access to information and news online resources via public libraries.

All public libraries benefited from access to a range of online information resources funded by the Big Lottery Fund. This initiative took place for a two-year period from January 2003 and provided access to a range of services. These included general information from KnowUK, business information from Kompass, newspaper provision from NewsBank and cultural information from the Statistical Accounts of Scotland.

This innovative project ensured that all citizens had access to information no matter whether they lived in a small rural authority or a large metropolitan area. During the subscription use of resources developed and e-services became recognised as integral to the requirements of a modern public library service.

In autumn 2004 the Heads of Public Library Services took the decision to continue to work collaboratively with the support of SLIC to provide access to quality information resources. This demonstrated the success of the People’s Network which has embedded the responsibility that public libraries have to provide access to quality information resources for both members of the public and library staff. The Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) developed and managed a tender process for online information services for all public libraries for a two-year period from April 2005. SLIC worked closely with the Authorities Buying Consortium (abc) who provided support and advice during the tender process.

An Invitation to Tender (ITT) was issued and a notice appeared in the Official Journal of the European Union. The ITT invited tenders for three areas of information provision: general information, business information and newspapers. Access to cultural resources was secured through Scottish Executive funding of access to SCRAN for a year long period from 1 September 2004.

A scoring system was used for this part of the evaluation. Librarians were then asked to indicate if they would recommend subscribing to the resource and to indicate their preference by comparing the services in each information area.

By working collaboratively library services have benefited from considerable discounts. All library services are participating in at least one area of the two-year subscription for online resources.

In general information provision 29 library services have subscribed to KnowUK and nine library services have subscribed to XRefer services. 14 library services have subscribed to business information services from Kompass and 31 have subscribed to newspaper provision through NewsUK. This has ensured that public libraries continue to offer access to a range of quality information resources and develops their role as an information provider in the digital age.

Hazel Lauder Service Development Manager, Scottish Library & Information Council (SLIC).

Information Scotland Vol. 3 (4) August 2005

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.