Regional library management systems

HEE's plans for consolidating to a smaller number of regional library management systems

What do we want to achieve?

HEE is committed ‘to providing NHS staff with a single, coherent national gateway to their trusted library and knowledge service, connecting them seamlessly to quality resources, services and support tailored to their needs’.

To deliver this vision, our aim is to integrate the national discovery service with regional library management systems.   We envisage 7-10 regional systems across England.

Timescale

2020-2025.

East of England

• This consortium comprises 15 services and 22 libraries
• Koha was implemented in May 2022
• Reviewing duplicate barcodes to support a more seamless regional approach to them

Kent, Surrey and Sussex

• This consortium comprises 10 services and 17 libraries
• Koha was implemented in May 2022
• Princess Alice Hospice library service will join the regional consortium in 2023
• Reviewing duplicate barcodes to support a more seamless regional approach to them

London

• Phased expansion of the existing South London Consortium to include other NHS libraries.  The consortium now comprises 15 services and 21 libraries.
• In 2023 three North West London services are being onboarded
• A new new member policy is being agreed

Midlands

• Phased expansion of the existing BASE Consortium to include other NHS libraries in the region; the HeLM consortium now comprises 24 services and 45 libraries
• Trialling the adoption of the national service desk software for user support request tracking

North East

• This consortium comprises 7 services and 20 libraries
• 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

• This consortium comprises 27 services and 44 libraries
• 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

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
• 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)

For further information, contact the Knowledge for Healthcare team on [email protected].