2023-24 roadmap for NHS regional library management systems 

About the plan for regional LMSs in the coming year.

With work to rationalise our Library Management Systems from 91 to eight regional systems continuing at pace, and 75% of NHS Knowledge and Library Services now participating in a regional system, we wanted to share the activity planned across the country during 2023-24.

This infographic highlights the key milestones for the coming year. 

Key developments by region 

All Koha regions

• Test and review of the ILL module developments for those regions using the ILL module

• Test and review the core collection of reports being set up for use by all Koha regions

East of England

• Review duplicate barcodes to support a more seamless regional approach to them

Kent, Surrey and Sussex

• Welcoming the Princess Alice Hospice library service

• Review duplicate barcodes to support a more seamless regional approach to them

London

• Onboarding three North West London services and agreeing a new member policy

Midlands

• Additional services will be joining

• Trialling the adoption of the national service desk software for user support request tracking

North East

• Two additional services will be joining by the end of June

North West

• Phase 1, involving 11 services, is set to go live with Koha by the end of September, with a further three services joining by the end of October

South West

• The current contract with Axiell will be extended

• Adoption of the national service desk software for user support request tracking

Yorkshire and Humber

• 13 services will go live with Koha by the end of December

Key functionality developments 

• Koha ILDS module enhancements to better reflect NHS requirements

• The creation of a core collection of commonly used reports for all Koha systems

• The launch of the new Koha bookings module, which will be available for implementation on request (initially in North West, and Yorkshire and Humber)

Other nationally coordinated work 

• Reviewing and refining NHS Knowledge Hub integration for all regional LMS, to improve user journeys to – and presentation of - LMS catalogue holdings

• Development of good practice guidance around collection management

Longer term  

Our vision still includes enabling ‘OPAC-like’ functionality via the national discovery platform, making it unnecessary to maintain separate OPACs, and ‘single sign on’ with users able to use OpenAthens to access their library membership records.