Published
By Ashley Cox
After September hosted both National Read a Book Day and International Literacy Day, CPC's DfE-recommended Library Resources procurement framework can help you to start an exciting new chapter.
In education, as in life, fashions might change and learning styles with them, but library resources remain a time-tested bedrock - inclusive, accessible and often indispensable.
With research suggesting even ten minutes of reading with children per day may result in significant benefits for the child, a book-based education can form the patterns than may become enduring habits, providing pleasure and a lifetime of learning through literature.
As hundreds of UK public libraries have been closed and/or limited to presenting reduced services over the past 15 years, the relevance and importance of good on-site libraries at our education institutions has seldom been greater, filling gaps for our youth and ensuring similar opportunities to those enjoyed by prior generations.
As a non-profit purchasing consortium, born out of the education sector itself, CPC’s long-lasting commitment to education can be traced to the 90s and, with early autumn playing host not only to National Read a Book Day, but International Literacy Day, it seemed a fine time to underline this commitment and highlight our support.
CPC’s Library Resources and Associated Services framework is one of 17 presented by our Greater Manchester-based purchasing consortium that comes recommended by the United Kingdom's Department for Education (DfE).
The framework collates a complete suite of library products, compliantly accessible to its members, with membership of the consortium itself free of charge to the UK’s education establishments.
As it stands, more than 10,000 stakeholders are signed up as CPC members.
The benefits of using such a framework are multiple, saving institutions time, effort and energy in sourcing suppliers, while driving new value opportunities through competition and/or collective buying power.
By making your procurement of library resources and associated services more effective and less demanding, CPC can function as a priceless purchasing partner, with the tenure and expertise to advise, guide and support.
Moreover, CPC’s innovative Giving Back charity initiative ensures that financial surpluses generated through framework use can be reinvested in the education sector, with circa £1 million in funding facilitating a range of purchases and projects since its inception in 2019.
To summarise, utilising a CPC buying framework can trigger dual benefits, helping to solve the procurement problems at your establishment, while concurrently having positive effects on the wider education sector, assisting young learners beyond your own institution’s walls.
While September’s National Read a Book Day celebrated the enjoyment reading can bring, International Literacy Day, a mere two days later, underlined the broader societal benefits, as well as those to the individual. As we turn the preliminary pages of a brand-new academic year, the importance of appropriate provision of library resources remains perennially bookmarked.
With that in mind, we will now take a look at the four lots that form CPC’s Library Resources and Associated Services framework, lots which, between them, can help students with both their reading for enjoyment and with important literacy standards this autumn and beyond.
Doing things by the book, CPC’s framework agreement is fully compliant with present public procurement regulations and acts as an open gateway to a vetted cohort of book suppliers, enabling you to kit out your on-site library, filling bare shelves with tales of written wonder.
Whether Keats and Yeats are on your side, or you’d sooner take a walk on the Wilde side, the framework can collate your collection of classic writing, while suppliers can also deliver academic texts of various publishers, spanning early years through KS4 to higher education.
Whichever you require, this DfE-approved arrangement can cover you, from cover to cover.
Expanding on its traditional textbook and shelf-based offerings, CPC’s Library Resources and Associated Services framework offers a lot specifically for the procurement of ebooks, delivering a 21st century solution that can complement the returns of your physical libraries.
This lot is comprised of four approved suppliers, providing institutions with choice as well as quality via providers Browns Books for Students, EBSCO International, Kortex and ProQuest, with CPC members able to initiate mini-competition to target procurements of a better value for money, which can result in savings for other projects.
With the ability to store and transport a myriad of portable reading resources, without need for significant space and storage, ebooks can serve as extremely useful tools and enhance this DfE-endorsed CPC framework’s extensive array of educational reading offerings on tap.
Looking to provide an even broader palette of learning resources, from the contemporary to the specialist? CPC’s Library Resources and Associated Services agreement includes its own lot for journal/periodical subscription services, adding primary sources and beneficial records to the classroom environment, aiding the research opportunities for your students.
With Prenax joining the framework in this third lot, various newspaper titles fall under its distinct remit, with the subscription models enabling access to a stream of authoritative and/or challengeable texts that can enrich the work produced across multiple subjects.
In addition, this DfE-recommended Library Resources and Associated Services offering can compliantly connect education establishments to an assortment of library discovery services, encompassing database provision, the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), plus more.
A swift route to market for would-be book buyers, the extensive CPC purchasing framework has a number of additional selling points, from its collective connection to suppliers with their own literary specialisms to the potential for noteworthy discounts versus publisher list prices.
Markedly, having been recommended by the Department for Education, institutions can be assured of the framework’s quality and its ability to deliver in line with procurement needs.
Looking to learn more about CPC’s Library Resources and Associated Services framework? Get in touch with Contract Manager, Lisa O’ Shea, who can advise how your institution may be able to use this agreement for forthcoming procurement projects at your on-site libraries.
Finally, as the maiden weeks of autumn pave the way to a seismic shift in the public procurement landscape, with Procurement Act 2023 becoming working law in the next few months, the CPC team is working hard to ensure its 10,000+ members are readily prepared for the key changes that await.
Having established its own Procurement Taskforce under Learning & Development Lead, Mark Pearson, CPC has created a Procurement Portal resource and can offer procurement consultancy options through its own Crescent Consultancy division. As part of this premium offering, CPC is able to offer expert tendering support on demand.
Click here to learn more about Crescent Consultancy or contact the team via CPC’s social media channels on LinkedIn and X (previously Twitter) to discuss anything relating to the consortium’s education-focused frameworks, including the one highlighted in this feature.
In the wake of National Read a Book Day and International Literacy Day, book a helpful chat with Crescent Purchasing Consortium - and start your new chapter this autumn.