RFP SJVLS 2019-003: Organizational Restructuring Consultant

SJVLS is a library consortium established in 1979 under the California Library Services Act by the public library systems of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mariposa, and Tulare Counties, and the city/district libraries of Coalinga-Huron, Porterville, and Tulare. In all, SJVLS represents 10 library jurisdictions and 110 individual library locations including large urban, medium city/suburban, and small, isolated rural libraries. The consortium was established with the intent of partnering to coordinate activities, share resources, and exchange expertise. This sharing of resources and collaborating with shared goals have enabled the member library to deliver higher quality services than they would be able to deliver on their own.

The Fresno County Public Library was the leader in establishing the Joint Powers Agreement and is designated as the fiscal agent in said agreement. Until recent years, the Fresno County Librarian also served as the Administrative Librarian for SJVLS. SJVLS staff members have been employees of Fresno County since its inception and Fresno County’s Central Library houses SJVLS offices and the System’s data center. In addition to the dedicated SJVLS staff, significant financial and administrative duties are carried out by Fresno County Library. Many of these activities have been financed through reimbursements from SJVLS funds. Nevertheless, the organizational model and its process have been determined to be unsustainable due to the increasing complexity of services coupled with changes in distribution of costs, and the time required to carry out the fiscal and administrative duties. As such, SJVLS seeks to create a SJVLS 2019-003 Organizational Restructuring Consultant 13 clearly defined long-term strategy with specific milestones that will allow help it define a new organizational model so that it may become a self-sustaining and efficient agency with enough resources, infrastructure and staff to operate independently.

In 2012, SJVLS has carried out studies to optimize operations and workflows with the expressed interest of minimizing operating costs due to economic challenges. This study, although related, is focused on achieving a greater level of sustainability in terms of workloads and with the intent to become an independent agency.

We anticipate that the contracted vendor will need to work in tandem with the organizations’ legal department to draft and update new legal documents so that the organization to may implement the necessary modifications in order to achieve the outlined goals of this project.