And Suddenly…..Nothing

You go to your favorite restaurant anticipating the joy of eating your favorite meal, their seafood platter. When you try to order it, the serving person tells you that you can’t. You must order something else. “Are you out of seafood?” you ask.

“No, we have plenty of seafood,” the person replies.

“If you have plenty of seafood, why can’t I order a seafood platter?”

“That is a good question,” the server replies. “The problem is that we are out of platters.”

This illustrates a looming crisis in the Maine library community. As things stand now, interlibrary loan, something many Maine residents use frequently, will cease on July first. That’s the platter in this scenario. (actually, it has already ceased, but I wrote much of this last weekend)

At first, there was little reaction, outrage, or discussion about this looming storm, but that has changed, particularly since the issue hit the press and TV two days ago. if you ask staff members in libraries privately, many are steaming over the issue. It comes about because the contract to renew the van delivery that sorts and transports books, movies, music, and more between libraries came up for renewal and things got messy. (In hindsight, much of the anger and frustration could have been mitigated if the problem had been discussed earlier)

That service transports approximately 8,000 items a day among Maine libraries. The van service allows smaller libraries like Stratton, Rangeley, and Belgrade to borrow not only items they can’t afford to purchase, but request multiple copies for book groups. It’s a huge resource for homeschooling families, and a service I use several times a week. I am copying my colleague Josh Tiffany’s perspective on the problem from his May report for the Gray Public Library. Our daughter Lisa is one of their patrons and was the person who originally alerted me to the looming disaster. He and his staff have been very proactive in making their patrons aware of this issue. That’s something EVERY library on the van service should be doing now. Can you imagine this not happening and you being a circulation staff member on July first. The thought of how much surprised outrage they might face makes me shudder.

Here are Josh’s thoughts on the issue:

5) Van delivery

a. On Saturday, May 4th, it was announced that the van delivery would be

experiencing some upcoming issues. The first was that the Maine State Library

for years has funded one free day of van delivery for any library in Maine that

meets certain (and very low) criteria. And second, there would be a gap in van

delivery due to circumstances outside of Maine State Library’s control.

i. The contract for the current courier service was ending on June 30, 2024.

The RFP for the new courier was not posted until March 27, 2024, with a

due date of late April. If there were no complications to the process, there

would be no delay in service.

ii. There were three bidders for the RFP, one of which failed to meet

minimum criteria. While both bids were vastly increased over previous

years (which follows a trend that many years in coming), the winning bid

was 25% higher than the bid from the current van delivery courier. This

increase was the driving force behind Maine withdrawing the free day to

all libraries. It was initially said that a sliding scale would be deployed so

it would be fair to everyone.

1. Later communications arrived (after I emailed several parties

requesting clarifying information on many points) that Maine would be remaining with the free day of van delivery for FY25 due

to the inability of many libraries to pivot their budget with no

notices. The new plan will be implemented in FY26.

iii. Due to the Procurement Office in Maine State government requesting

input from technology experts, this delayed the process by 30-days –

which was the first reason given for the upcoming gap in service.

iv. One of the bidders filed a request for appeal of the RFP award. On May

16th, it was stated that the appeal had been granted which put a pause on

the entire transition from one service to the next. Since the appeals must

be heard within a 60-day window, and then considered and ruled on, the

delays could run for four to five months.

v. If the appeal is upheld, the RFP process starts over from the beginning,

meaning no van delivery service for multiple months.

vi. Based on another question I asked, it was stated that if the costs of van

delivery increase to the point that numerous libraires have to adjust their

delivery days (currently, Gray has one day paid for Maine State Library,

one day paid for by Minerva ((which has guaranteed that it will not change

membership rates based on increased van delivery costs this year and will

use its surplus to bridge the gap; in future years, the cost will go up)), and

two days that we pay for out of our regular budget. With everything

paused, we will not know the expense of this service until well into the

budget season.

vii. Maine State Library is strongly encouraging libraries to NOT use personal

vehicles for the transport of library items – something that occurred the

last time Maine State Library hired a new courier, and it went south in a

matter of days.

viii. Due to the inability to provide any kind of timeline for resumption of

services, several voices on list-servs (mine included) advocated for

shutting down inter-library requesting immediately so that when July 1

occurred, there would be a limited number of materials trapped in limbo.

The response from Maine State Library is that all activity needs to

maintain as they currently are. Any deviation would be perceived as

violating the Stay order issued by the Procurement Office.

ix. In June, we will be contacted with the cost of continuing service. At this

point, we may change our delivery options.

x. Apart from telling us when they will have updates, the only promise from

Maine State Library is that it will communicate ideas for how libraries of

all sizes can address this gap in service, particular around messaging to

patrons.

xi. For more information, please visit: https://maine-msl.libguides.com/c.php?g=1393867

NOTE: I wrote this last weekend, but it finally got some press and TV traction yesterday. My cynical mind grabbed the following from it:

According to a post on the Maine State Library website, STAT Courier was chosen as the winning bidder in part because it provides the same type of service in 16 other states and its trucks, drivers and sorters only deal with library materials. It has three sorting hubs in Maine that will help with efficiency and has a 24/7 customer service line, according to the state library.

I looked st the company website. They handle more than just library delivery. If the MSL statement is accurate, what are their three sorting facilities currently sorting? This might be sour grapes on my part, but as a former employee of the Maine State Library, my cynicism has some reality base. Your thoughts?