City backs down over controversial library book fees

by John Cousins and Sandra Conchie | 1st June 2010

Library books will remain free in Tauranga after the city council dumped its controversial plan to charge for all adult fiction and non-fiction.

The council yesterday bowed to overwhelming public pressure and unanimously reversed its bid to end one of the traditional pillars of public libraries.

Deputy mayor David Stewart hoped the issue had been put to bed for at least 10 years.

The unanimous vote was a U-turn on council's decision last December to test public opinion on imposing a new charge of 50 cents on all adult books.

Yesterday's meeting also reversed a decision made last year to reduce library book stocks from 2.6 books per head of population, to 2.35 books.

Many critics of the 50c charge were also dismayed that the new formula meant axing 30,000 books from city libraries - almost the equivalent of the entire stock of Greerton Library.

Library manager Jill Best told councillors the New Zealand libraries' average was 3.1 books per head of population.

Council moved to offset the lost revenue of $353,000 from axing the 50c charge by adding $1 to existing charges for top title adult fiction, CDs and DVDs.

The extra earning power from top titles, together with other minor increases in revenue, means ratepayers will end up paying an additional $250,000 this year to subsidise library operational costs, compared with the draft budget.

Yesterday's decisions will also have a flow-on effect on library staffing. The library had expected that charging for all adult books would translate into a 22 per cent drop-off in library usage.

It subsequently budgeted for staff savings averaging $250,000 a year for the next three years. This has now been revised to savings averaging $150,000 a year.

Council voted 6-5 to back Cr Stewart's call for a six-month trial to restrict the number of books that a library member can borrow at any one time to 20 - half the number recommended in the annual plan.

Only 4.5 per cent of borrowers take out more than 20 books at a time and nearly all are families.

The likely consequence was that each child in a family would have books issued on their card, rather than issuing collectively on one card.

Yesterday's decisions are conditional on council signing off the 2010-11 annual plan later this month.

Save our Libraries campaign leader Vanessa Byrnes was thrilled by the decision and said "common sense [had] prevailed".

"It's a great victory for the people of Tauranga. It was a ridiculous proposal in the first place."

The proposal to charge for library books had been one of the biggest issues to galvanise the community in a long time, she said.

People were passionate about safeguarding the community's access to library resources.

Huge numbers had supported the campaign and made written and oral submissions to council.

"It was wonderful to see what can be achieved when people really stick together."

Ms Byrnes said libraries should never have been looked upon as fiscal entities, but as treasured assets which should be accessible to everybody.

The outcome of the vote would set a precedent for the rest of New Zealand.

"The community has spoken, telling council that the library was too precious and, fortunately, councillors listened."