With the Prime Minister’s recent speech emphasing the Government’s continued emphasis on education  (Education to 18 committing all 16-18 yr olds to be staying in education by 2013) as the great liberator for young people,  we can expect that schools will be looking at ways of making their resources even more flexible to cope with the increased demands placed on them. 

The Government’s ongoing commitment to BSF, albeit with the announcement of  shifting priorities,  means that schools continue to seek out improved efficiencies out of  unequally improved budgets.  Flexiblity and resources that can adapt and grow as a school changes will give greater rewards on investment and also keep the school relevant and attractive. 

Companies that can demonstrate future-proof products and services will be offering a more attractive proposition to schools and school build partnerships who may find it hard to anticipate now, what changes the school might face in 5 – 10 years time.   Library security systems company D-Tech has recently introduced a school library stock security system (RFIQ) that can later be seamlessly upgraded to a high spec, high performance RFID-based system,  with minimal upgrade disruption or costs.  Bob Bellamy, Education Business Devleopment Manager, at D-Tech said:  “Schools change, colleges change, libraries change – why not develop a library security technology that stays in step with these changes? The appeal of RFIQ is the fact that it gives schools the flexibility to manage future changes and keep their school library bang up to date and stock well protected”. 

This ability to stretch investment in a system that is future proofed is proving to be very attractive with school libraries. 

School Librarian, Craig Martin:  “I think that now more so than ever, schools and school librarians have to exploit their budgets in the best possible way to protect the investment as wisely as they can and be aware of the need to represent good value for money by scrutineers.  The purchasing of a library security system must surely be a serious consideration for many schools to represent sound stock control management.

With BSF and increased partnership working, with schools potentially sharing catalogues using VLEs and resources in the future, the use of a security system can play a viable part in controlling stock movement between sites.

Librarians and Senior Management need to be forward thinking, when planning the effective use of space within the library area to embrace new technologies but at the same time not lose sight as to the Library or Learning Resource Centre being the heart of the school when it comes to literacy, research and learning

Even though multi-volume titles can still play an important part in school library stock, and still needs adequate management control and security, a greater emphasis of these can be found in the form of  electronic resources, and adequate reporting procedures need to be devised  on how these are accessed rather than just the number of "hits".  It is often difficult to access the impact and usage of these, unlike traditional book stock.