2014-02-25 Infrastructure & Services Committee Meeting Agenda

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                           25 FEBRUARY 2014


RECOMMENDATION

That Council note the report by the Libraries Coordinator to the Infrastructure & Services
Committee dated 25 February 2014 and endorse the strategies outlined in the report to inform
the community of the separation of the Noosa Library Service from the Sunshine Coast Council
and to support library customers through the subsequent changes.




BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Library Services were one of the fully integrated services of the new Sunshine Coast Regional
Council providing seamless access to collections with one library membership card from any
service point. It was considered a significant benefit to customers across the wider Sunshine
Coast region and its success was evidenced by customer usage patterns and feedback.

The potential for ongoing shared library services was considered by the Noosa Transfer Team
and within Sunshine Coast Council, with an expectation that a report would be presented to the
Transfer Committee. At the time, the Noosa Transfer Team and library personnel considered
there was significant merit to maintaining a cooperative service model which would share some
key elements: physical and digital library collections, the Spydus software system, courier
system, membership card and mobile library service. All other elements including staffing,
facilities, programming and administration would be the responsibility of the individual councils.

Sunshine Coast Council considered the issue of library services at its 28 October 2013 meeting
and resolved to completely separate library services by 30 June 2014. The Noosa Transfer
Manager was notified in early November of this decision.

By the 31 December 2013 the first stage of the separation had occurred with Noosa Council
responsible for the operation and management of Noosa Library Service from 1 January 2014 in
regards to library buildings and equipment, the Mobile Library, in-branch and community library
services, human resources, website, marketing and all library programs.

A Working Group incorporating key officers from Noosa Council and Sunshine Coast Council has
been meeting since December to negotiate the final separation of library services from Sunshine
Coast Council. The major software system separation project has commenced.

PREVIOUS COUNCIL CONSIDERATION

Nil.

REPORT

Noosa Library Service will deliver services and programs through three locations at Noosaville,
Cooroy and on the Mobile Library, as well as digitally through the library website. It will have
approximately 30,000 members and a physical lending collection of 105,000 items.

Staff within Noosa Library Service are preparing for the final separation of library services from
Sunshine Coast Council. The remaining elements to be separated include:

      physical lending and reference collections;
      digital e-Library collections and resources; and
      the software system, Spydus, that manages the borrower records and collection.



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