Catalan booksellers have been incubating for months a certain discomfort caused by how libraries buy books. The rules have changed this last year because Catalan public procurement law It has to adapt to European regulations and that has made library acquisitions increasingly larger tenders – sometimes, lots of almost 100,000 euros– which are very difficult to access for most bookstores, which are medium or small in size.
The smallest games, the calls “local purchases” in neighborhood bookstores, for between 1,000 and 3,000 euros, have disappeared to avoid favoritism and corruption and thus promote free competition throughout the Schengen area. “But if you are a micro company it is very difficult to score in a large tender. And what we are seeing is that the same ones almost always win”, explains Núria Càrcamo, partner in the cooperative in charge of the Sendak children’s bookstore in the Gràcia neighborhood.
The intrusiveness of cataloging and covering
The book business has, by its very nature, a limitation due to the fixed price: It is not the bookseller who sets the retail price of a book, but the publisher. The law allows discounts for exceptions and exclusions of 5% and 10% on Sant Jordi day. The tenders score more the higher the discount, with a maximum of 15% (the sum of the two allowed by law), something that leaves a very small profit margin for booksellers, who usually take 30%. “And we are seeing that we also have to assume other costs such as transportation and delivery, cataloging and covering of books”, explains Càrcamo.
Faced with specialization or proximity, two of the criteria that booksellers defend, right now the law establishes that the preferential tiebreaker criterion of a tender are the disabled employees, a European measure that seeks to promote equality and promote inclusion. It is the case of Infobibliotecas SL, based in Vigowhich accumulates tenders throughout the territory, such as that of 45,000 euros to supply the municipal library of Sant Cugat last year, where there are five bookstores. “It is not understood that the Government campaigns to promote local commerce and sustainability and that then this is not applied in public procurement,” says Càrcamo.
The disability tiebreaker
The shadow of suspicion hangs over Infobibliotecas SL, based in Pontevedra and five workers, all with permanent contracts and disabilities, a figure higher than what the regulations require. Infobibliotecas SL has acquired another batch this October to renew the bibliographic collection of editorial news from the libraries of Nou Barris and Horta Guinardó for a contract of 43,500 euros with VAT. The lot for the Sant Andreu and Sant Martí libraries, worth 48,500 euros, has been awarded to the Catalan company Tatarana SL, with two people hired, both also with disabilities.
The Llibreters Guild successfully challenged another award last November in the Catalan Court of Public Contracting (it was a contract of 192,307 euros divided into two lots for Spanish and Catalan). A meeting has also been held with the Library Consortium, the Provincial Council of Girona and Barcelona and the Department of Culture of the Generalitat to bring positions together and study the issue from a technical, legal and political point of view.
More and smaller batches
“The law is the law”, admits Marià Marín, technical secretary of the Gremi, “but the law does not say that you have to make one or two lots of 100,000 euros, what it says is that you have to favor competition. AND If the contest is always won by the same people, then perhaps the contest is poorly done. and you are not favoring the competition,” he points out.
Making more batches with more affordable quantities is one of the guild’s battles. Marín believes that the creation of ‘ad hoc’ companies where all employees are disabled to win public tenders is a common practice. “A lot happens because there is a lot of ties. What we say is that A tender is poorly done if it is tied so much and that the criteria should be reviewed, always within the framework of the law, to avoid such a high level of ties,” he reflects.
He also emphasizes that it is much easier to process two lots than 15, and for 4 candidates to present themselves than for 70 to do so. “Who is against inclusion? Nobody. We are only saying that the new system has been expelling ordinary bookstores. And just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s okay.”, he points out.
From Libraries of Barcelona they answer that “as a public body we must comply with current legislation on contracting” and they are “open to those proposals that can be incorporated within the framework of the law.” They are aware of the discomfort of the booksellers and “The latest tenders for the supply of bibliographic funds for libraries are with lots of less than 50,000 euroswhere cataloging and encoding/alarming is not requested as added value.
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“Regarding proximity,” they report, “the specifications require the successful bidder companies that must have a bookstore or distribution and consultation point in the city“, open to the public for a minimum of 25 hours a week, given that libraries must be able to choose documents on site, without having to travel outside of Barcelona.”
Bookstores in Catalonia: a dense and small network
Catalonia has 429 libraries and 14 bookmobiles spread throughout the territory, where they coexist with 453 bookstores according to Cegal. It is a very dense network, the largest in Spain (the Community of Madrid has 402) and well above other European territories. Some 250 companies are behind those 430 bookstores. Only 16 have a high turnover (more than half a million euros), about 25 have a turnover between 150,000 and 500,000 euros and the majority, 127 companies, invoice between 100,000 and 150,000 euros per year. Small bookstores with an annual turnover of less than 100,000 euros range between 70 and 75, according to Gremi data. The Barcelona Library Consortium, which has an annual budget of 24.8 million euros for 2023, dedicated three items this year to the supply of “bibliographic funds,” “bibliographic funds and other funds,” and “bibliographic funds and other funds.” and “general fund” of 830,766, 647,346 and 461,538 euros respectively.