Black Country libraries are in line for a £723,000 overhaul of their tired IT facilities to make way for new self-service desks to boost on-line borrowing.

Red Sky, the company which currently supplies the information systems across all of Sandwell’s libraries, will withdraw its service in July because of changes at its parent company. The current system, which manages the 1.3 million loans of stock from more than 59,000 borrowers each year, has been identified as a risk of potential failure.

The race is now on to find a new supplier of facilities before the summer, and council bosses have warned that the cost of replacing the system could soar if a new supplier is not found before Red Sky pull out.

On Thursday Sandwell Council’s strategic resources committee will be asked to approve a £723,000 upgrade of the system and give the go ahead to start a tender process.

In a report to the committee, Linda Saunders, from the council’s cultural services department, states: “The introduction of a modern library management system will have implications for working practices and lead to greater efficiencies in staff deployment.

“A risk log is maintained and regularly updated and the current red risk is the potential failure of the existing system before the replacement can be implemented.

“If a replacement Library Management System is not procured, system failure will both be more likely and more costly when Red Sky’s support ceases in July.

“This will result in the need for an unplanned, unbudgeted replacement system at the moment of failure as without a system the library service cannot fulfil its statutory requirement to loan materials to customers.”

Around £60,000 towards the new system is expected to come from the school library service and Sandwell College library, which will both use the new facilities.

Sandwell Council will then be left facing a £663,000 bill for the rest.

It is hoped that self-service counters will free up staff to be more hands-on with borrowers, running group sessions and helping people who use the library to further develop their reading skills.