The bidding culture in the UK public library – a case study approach

Effective participation in the competitive bidding arena is one of the main vehicles for securing the necessary additional funds to maintain and develop UK public library services. This paper documents the extent and scale of bidding by public libraries and presents areas of good practice emerging from research into the effects that the bidding culture has had on the development of English local government archive, library and museum services. Key findings suggest that approaches to external funding should be strategy‐driven taking place within a framework of purpose and rationale; that success is often highly dependent on the leadership and networking skills of library managers; and that partnership working should be encouraged and adopted. Successful proposals should demonstrate the benefits and credibility of proposers to deliver; provide evidence of properly resourced project management including methods of monitoring and evaluation; explicitly address the relevant funding criteria and be well‐researched and carefully planned.