Capita’s library division announces it is to support the UK’s first fully integrated university and public library. The Hive project, a library and history centre bringing together Worcestershire County Council and the University of Worcester, has selected Capita’s library management system (LMS) to manage a range of library services. This will benefit over half a million citizens and over 9,000 students who will have access to more varied and numerous resources than ever before, including books and journals as well as local historic collections.

The LMS will allow the project to provide improved library facilities for users, with intuitive services such as a fully integrated catalogue and extensive self service features including payment of charges via kiosks. The single catalogue will allow citizens and students to join the service online, request items online and receive notifications via email and potentially SMS. It will also enable efficiency savings to be realised by automating some of the back office processes such as managing interloan requests or enabling individuals to join the library.

The project is a unique initiative in which the university and the public library share library services, hosted in a brand new state-of-the-art building. The two institutions will share over a quarter of a million books from their collections and bring over twelve miles of archive collections and 23,000 records into the centre of the city from the record office. The service will also offer 800 study spaces.

“The Hive is an incredibly ambitious and aspirational project, which will serve the people of Worcestershire for many years to come,” said Paul Williams from the project’s library and collection systems workstream. “Bringing together the university and public library, alongside the record office, archaeology service and hub represented a real challenge and we needed a supplier who recognised and understood that ambition. Capita’s experience in the market and commitment to developing the service alongside us makes them an ideal partner.”

The university and local authority list, among their other aims:

• A ground-breaking new building, housing key services under one roof, with a single staff structure
• A fully integrated catalogue and book stock
• Combined IT infrastructure
• Shared management and vision for the service

Capita’s solution will help maintain a range of fresh and exciting stock including books, journals and DVDs, assist in extending borrowing methods such as mobile and self service and enable libraries in the region to extend their reach within the community by making their services more accessible. The project will also benefit from back office efficiencies through the use of a single integrated system. This system incorporates the circulation, acquisition and cataloguing of stock, provides integrated access to 30 million bibliographic records and circulation tools which ensure reservation requests are met quickly and efficiently.

Jon Peart, associate director at Capita’s library division, said: “This is a very exciting project and proves that shared services and consortia arrangements don’t need to be restricted to single sector relationships. I am sure that this project will be viewed with interest across the industry to see how this can improve customer experiences and reduce the overall costs of providing the services. I am very pleased that we are able to provide the system at the heart of this project and look forward to working closely with The Hive to realise the benefits at the earliest possible opportunity.”

The solution is currently being implemented and will go live in the summer of 2012 together with the opening of the project’s shared main building.

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Notes to editors

Capita’s software services business attributes its position as the leading supplier of software solutions to the public sector and housing marketplace, to its strong partnership approach. It works closely with customers to provide tailored systems in the disciplines of customer services, mobile technology, payment collection, income management, integrated housing management, revenues and benefits processing and services and policy training. Capita’s customers benefit from a bespoke service, helping them to streamline their processes and deliver a high performance citizen-centric service.

As a division of The Capita Group Plc, the company has experienced strong and consistent growth since its inception in 1994 and works with over 70 per cent of local authorities in the UK. Further information on Capita Software Services can be found at: www.capita-software.co.uk

The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions. With 45,000 people at more than 350 sites, including 64 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its clients’ services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2010 of £2,744 million. Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: www.capita.co.uk

The Hive project

• The £60 million Library and History Centre is a joint project between the County Council and the University of Worcester underpinned by financial investment from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with the support of Worcester City Council. 
• It will be built on The Butts site through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) which brings together the public sector with private sector developers Galliford Try. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport provided the County Council with £40.9 million of PFI credits, the County Council has added £6.6 million, the University and HEFCE have contributed over £10 million, AWM £7 million and the City Council £300,000.
• The combined facility is believed to be the first of its kind in Europe. It will draw together the County Council's library services for the city centre as well as the extensive library facilities currently provided by the university at its St John’s Campus. The combined facility will house a fully-integrated public and university library, the Worcestershire Record Office, Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service and the Worcestershire Hub Customer Service Centre. All facilities will be available for members of the public and students.
• The centre will play an important role in the regeneration of the city centre, and together with the university’s new city campus, situated next door, will create hundreds of new jobs.