Our tender for the supply of New Zealand material went live on Government Electronic Tenders Service website this week, with a closing date of 29th January 2016.  We will be shoulder-tapping companies experienced in the supply of books to libraries that we are aware of and asking them to consider this opportunity.

What is the bigger picture?
This action is part of objective 1.14 in our 2015 Operational Plan Improve acquisition processes of new material linking to the theme on Improve access to, and promotion of Information Resources.  Selection of New Zealand material has been difficult in the wake of many staffing changes and particularly since the earthquakes.  We would like to work with a vendor who can help us in profiling and selecting relevant material.

How will library staff be involved in the discussion?
We expect to evaluate the bids from vendors in late January.  We hope a range of library staff will be involved in the evaluation including staff from Access and Collections, Macmillan Brown, Education and Academic Liaison.  The outcome from that discussion will inform the panel that votes on the final outcome.

Who will this affect?
The outcome of this tender is to determine a preferred supplier for New Zealand, Māori and Pacific information resources.  Continuing resources (supplied through EBSCO) and non-continuing resources supplied from overseas (normally ordered through vendors like YBP) are exclusions from this tender.  We hope to develop a purchase plan (approval plan) with the preferred vendor which will assist staff involved in selecting material for these subject and specialist areas.  We will also encourage local companies such as the Arts Centre Bookshop who currently supply us with a lot of New Zealand material to consider submitting a response to our tender.

Questions and comments welcome.
Tim Stedman