Council decisions

The Library Service uses a national framework to purchase the majority of stock. To supplement this, individual contracts are held with a range of other suppliers for materials that are not available on this framework.  Market engagement has been undertaken to confirm the position with regard to supply.  This has concluded that a number of suppliers are sole providers of materials through licence and as such, under paragraph 9.1 of the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs), require a single tender action which has been approved by the Commercial and Customer Service Director.  The table in Appendix 1 sets out the amount of spend and the rationale for the use of each supplier via a single tender action.

On the 4^th April 2016, the Council approved Barnet’s Future Library Strategy and within this strategy, four libraries (East Barnet, South Friern, Mill Hill and Childs Hill) will become community run Partnership Libraries from the 1^st April 2017.  These libraries will continue to form part of the Barnet library network and agreements with partner organisations will last for 10 years. The successful partners will receive an annual enabling grant to support the operation of the service, alongside volunteers which they will recruit from the local community. The council has now concluded the process to identify partner organisations and has identified partner organisations for each of the four Partnership Libraries. A period of transition will now commence during which the preferred partner organisations will be supported to refine and develop their business plans and prepare to operate the library.