Publishing services

Tender description

The Digital Library (formerly “Reference Online”) is a national collaborative procurement initiative led by the Society of Chief Librarians on behalf of English public libraries. Its purpose is to provide a service for the procurement of commercial electronic products and services that secures cost-effectiveness for libraries, streamlined processes for all and most importantly improved services to public library users. The purpose of this exercise is to add additional content to the digital library. Consultation has taken place with staff in English public libraries on the broad categories of resources that are most used in their libraries, and for which they would be most likely to sign up to nationally-negotiated agreements. These broad categories are listed below. Proposals were sought for online resources covering these areas, whether aggregated or directly-published. Products should be available where possible on annual subscription, and offered with authority-wide licences, with no limits on usage or numbers of concurrent users. — general reference materials, — newspapers and magazines, — business, legal and financial information, — consumer affairs materials, — genealogical resources, — e-book and e-audio book services, — streamed music services, — health information, — instructional material, — materials to support the needs of children and young people.