Conclusions

FLICC/FEDLINK’s members, vendors and staff provided valuable feedback through the four FLICC/FEDLINK surveys conducted in February 2006. A number of themes were repeated throughout the surveys and should be incorporated into FLICC/FEDLINK’s upcoming five-year business plan.

Many members and vendors associate FLICC/FEDLINK closely with the Library of Congress. At the same time, the Library of Congress has many resources with which FLICC/FEDLINK can align itself to provide new and better services.

Members are increasingly buying information-related products directly from vendors for a variety of reasons, including the need to buy from vendors outside of the FEDLINK network, the desire to use credit cards, and the wish to avoid FEDLINK’s Transfer Pay service fee. Members would like more and new types of services, including temporary staffing, new types of online/multimedia resources, and more. They describe such services as well as vendors they would like to see join the network. FLICC/FEDLINK could expand its sales by incorporating such products and vendors into its network.

The desire for true consortium purchasing on behalf of multiple agencies and/or user groups was also repeated by many disparate members. FLICC/FEDLINK could create a new role for itself by developing such consortium arrangements.

The need for an automated financial system that allows members to view their accounts electronically was also repeated many times in the surveys. If FLICC/FEDLINK were to invest in a modern accounting system at the same time that it improves its customer service, FEDLINK would become a more popular network for federal agencies.

Vendors, for their part, are willing to sell products through FEDLINK or directly to federal agencies. Overall, they express the need for FEDLINK to take a much more proactive role in marketing their products to encourage more sales through FEDLINK. FEDLINK needs to promote vendors products to help channel sales through the network instead of playing a passive role as the middleman of such purchases.

Members have expressed an interest in consulting services. FLICC/FEDLINK could augment its revenue stream by building a consulting arm. Such services could incorporate the rich resources available already from various divisions of the Library of Congress.

FLICC/FEDLINK also needs to project a new image associating it with online products, consortium purchasing, consulting services, etc. A redesigned web site and a new e-letter would help build a new image for FLICC/FEDLINK and position it to grow in the coming years.

The surveys are replete with compelling feedback and useful suggestions, as summarized in this report. We encourage all interested parties to view the data and answers in the surveys to get an even richer picture of the needs and suggestions FLICC/FEDLINK’s core users, vendors and staff describe. By building on the expressed needs of its members, vendors and staff, FLICC/FEDLINK will be in a stronger position to capitalize on the changing information and library requirements of federal agencies and become an even more important player in the delivery of information-related resources to the federal government.