lunchBOX

lunchBOX: Hello, good day, and welcome to lunchBOX. On the menu today, we're delighted to welcome Gavin Phillips from the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium for a suitably socially distanced lunch, separated as we are by a large stretch of the River Thames. textBOX and the ASPIRE accessibility statement review service are delighted to be partnering with SUPC, and we are grateful to Gavin for his commitment to ASPIRE and his dedication to improving accessibility across the library sector. Join us and find out all about Gavin's work, his favourite people, his reading + listening habits, and, of course, we'll answer the burning question of the day: what's his lunch order? So, without further hesitation, let's find out. Bon appetit everyone...

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1. Who are you and what do you do?

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GP: I’m Gavin Phillips and I’m a Category Manager at the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC). My role includes developing and managing the framework agreements that English and Welsh academic libraries use to procure books, e-books, and periodicals. Our agreements are used primarily by HE, but also to an extent by FE and other organisations.

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2. How did you come to be involved in the world of accessibility?

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GP: Prior to joining SUPC I was Acquisitions Manager for the Library Services at Imperial College London and, as our spend shifted increasingly from print to digital resources, accessibility became a key factor in purchase decisions. My role also included sourcing accessible formats for disabled students and I was able to work with Occupational Health colleagues to better understand the perspective of students with dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties to further inform our decision-making processes.

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At SUPC I am applying those same concepts, but at a sector level and with input from a group of English and Welsh librarians.

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3. What does accessibility mean to you?

GP: An equitable experience, which means considering all the elements of the way someone discovers and then uses a resource, be it digital or physical. Some barriers can be addressed with specific functionality, but many barriers can simply cease to exist at all with a bit of thoughtful design and understanding of the beginning-to-end user experience.

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Very often, the improvements that can be made from an accessibility perspective are actually improvements for everyone, so an equitable experience is usually a better one all round.

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4. What has been your biggest challenge in promoting accessibility?

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GP: I’m fortunate that the suppliers and the libraries that I work with are very much on board. The challenge for me is that accessibility is something that is spread through the supply chain. We need everyone to do their bit but those efforts need to be joined up if they are to be compatible and as effective as possible. SUPC quickly becomes just one part of this picture so I need to understand how best to work as part of that wider picture.

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5. What’s been your biggest success in relation to accessibility?

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GP: I hope this is yet to come! My first year at SUPC has been impeded by the pandemic, but I think we are on the right track in updating accessibility requirements for our forthcoming Books/e-Books tender. Finding the right partners is often better than trying to be an expert in everything and our link with ASPIRE is an important step in the right direction. That needs to be the start of something bigger and I hope that time will see us harnessing more of the considerable sector expertise, so that we can work further with our suppliers.

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6. What is the most enjoyable part of your job?

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GP: Working at a sector level means I have more potential to make the most of my efforts. I enjoy the process of that, finding the right people to work with and discovering the best way to mix the expertise into the procurement process. I’ve not been in the post long enough to see this fully pay off yet, but we should see this in 2021 and what we’ve done so far around metadata and with ASPIRE has had really positive feedback.