North Yorkshire’s Library Outlet Model

Presentation for Alternative Governance and Outsourcing briefing

27 July 2010

Chrys Mellor / Juliet Pudney

Introduction

•North Yorkshire - England’s largest county

•Challenge - how to get services to rural areas

•Opportunity of invest to save money enabling us to test the market with alternative models

The outlet model aims to integrate a library facility into other community venues such as village halls, community centres, extra care facilities etc.

The library service provides:•books and shelving and dependant on location

•self-issue machine •networked PC.

Local people run the service with advice and professional support from library staff.

Our experience so far

•One size does not fit all

•5 outlets ranging from a deposit collection in a community pub -

Hudswell

to a Community Partnership taking over a small branch library in Hawes

In between we have – North Stainley village hall

•Self –issue machine •6 core hours per week, staffed by volunteers, •used by local school,•open when other events on

Bainbridge Extra Care Housing

•Self-issue machine •PN computer•Open 9am - 9.30pm, 7 days a week

Volunteers at Bainbridge demonstrating use of self issue machine.

Local school children trying out the self issue machine

• Self issue machine• Two PN computers• 32 core hours

14 hours staff18 hours Hub

volunteers

Grassington Hub

Service Agreement

•Quality standards •Targets •What the library service will do•What the outlet volunteers will do

Volunteers•Recruited and supported by the partner organisation•Act as facilitators, ensuring the library is open at core times and assisting users

Lessons learned

•It takes longer then you expect!•Enthusiastic local group essential•ICT costs high •One size does not fit all•Opportunistic vs strategic

The future ????