Concern over future of library books

Terry Hawker is worried Tauranga City Council will slash book stocks in the next 10 years.

Tauranga's libraries could be losing out on 20,000 books a year if a Tauranga City Council decision is confirmed during the Long Term Plan process, says a concerned Papamoa resident.

But Tauranga's Mayor says no decisions have been finalised.

Over the next 10 years, the council has decided to keep the library's budget the same at $798,000 rather than keeping a level of service of 2.4 stock items per resident.

As the population of Tauranga grows, this means in 10 years, the number of books per resident would have decreased to 1.96.

The Bay of Plenty Times asked the council how much money it aimed to save by cutting the number of books, how many books it has currently, how many eBooks the council plans to buy each year and how much was budgeted to buy eBooks each year.

Communications team member Emma Cottin replied in a statement: "All these questions will be answered in the Long Term Plan deliberations report on the library stock proposal. This report is not yet final. It will be sent to elected members and put on the public agenda on Thursday, May 28, in advance of the deliberations meetings on June 2, 3 and 5."

Papamoa resident Terry Hawker said by decreasing the number of books per resident, the city was losing out on 20,000 books per year.

Mr Hawker, who is a committee member of Friends of the Library, said the stock cuts appeared to be an easy way of saving the council money.

"They need money. It's a very hard decision for them - whether they increase the rates or cut the services, they are damned no matter what they do.

"Libraries have a very far reaching effect, especially on the people without much money. These people can go to a library to read books and have internet access, all sorts of things they are not able to put money into."

Mr Hawker said buying digital books rather than physical editions would be something that happened more often in future, but it was not something Tauranga should rush into.

Elder residents were not always technologically apt enough to use this media and may not have the right devices, while others may not be able to afford them.

With a tertiary campus moving to the city centre in the near future, Tauranga needed to make sure its material was up to scratch.

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby said in the Long Term Plan there was an element of holding the book stock, which was subject to a "wide ranging" library review process that was under way.

"Once the review is completed, then the book stock issue will be addressed again for the 2016/17 financial year. It's not being slashed, it's being held to a certain level that will be considered in deliberations from June 3 onwards, so it's premature of that person [Mr Hawker] to make that statement."

Mr Crosby said the Long Term Plan had indicated a holding of book stock until the review was completed, which was a sensible thing to do.