Council moves towards user pays libraries

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 353, 11 September 1990, Page 4

Council moves towards user pays libraries

The question of whether district libraries should adopt a user pays policy was one of the main items in the Ruapehu District Council agenda at their meeting 31 August.

The budget set aside for operating the five public libraries within the district represents 4% of the rates collected and discussion ranged over a number of matters raised in the report presented by RDC Community Enterprises Director, John Murrihy, with many councillors expressing opposing views. In his back-

ground report John Murrihy said that of the five public libraries within the district only three (T aumarunui, Ohakune and Raetihi) are council libraries while the other two are in Ohura and Waiouru. The Taumarunui library, by far the biggest council library, is staffed by two full time and two part time staff

with college students assisting on Saturday mornings. Last year the library made 58,000 issues of books and materials and has various fees for rentals which brought in about $5,000 in the 1989/90 year. At present it has a once-only joining fee of $5 per person. The Ohakune and Raetihi libraries are operated for 22 and 15 hours each week respectively by part time librarians. The Ohakune library with its close

proximity to the Turoa ski fields attracts many itinerant users during the winter months but no charge is made for renting books. Ohura has a small school/community library staffed by one library assistant and volunteers primarily paid for by the school. Last year the library sought $1,000 from the council and this year expects to receive $500 towards running expenses and $1,000 for books In addition a book exchange system has been intro-

duced for all libraries in the district which will assist in cutting down multiple copies of some book titles and provide a greater book resource for each individual library. No charges are made by the Ohura library. The Waiouru library is funded by the Army Training Group and specialises in military readership material. However, the library is available to the public at no charge and is operated by three staff. The Army has sought a contribution from counciL

for is library operation and $5,000 has been set aside for this purpose on the 1990/91 year. Consistent The aim of the council's library philosophy is to operate a consistent policy throughout all five libraries within the district because the service is a facility which is available at any of these libraries. And while council's general philosophy is in the direction of user pays, Mr Murrihy's recommendation was that public libraries should not be part of this policy because of the special part they play as an essential educational tool. Other council services such as public conveniences, information centres, parks, sports grounds and reserves are provided free to all residents and ratepayers. "And while I have advocated that no rental charges should be imposed (for books) I would also advocate that those library users who utilise additional services such as photocopying, replacement of membership cards, National Library requests (and postage), book reservations, overdue fines etc should be charged for them. These services, by their very nature, incur the library in additional direct costs and should be recovered," he said. He recommended to council that the $5 joining fee at the Taumarunui library be abolished. General Manager Cliff Houston endorsed that resolution saying that such a fee was "of doubtful legality" anyway. Fiction rental He also said that if rentals on books were charged the Natiorial Library Service would withdraw books from the loan system. However he thought it might be possible to impose an appropriate rental on some types of book (popular fiction for example) in order that this section of the library becomes self-sustain-ing. Councillor Kirton said that pensioners and school children would have difficulty paying (rentals) for books. Councillor Malcolm supported the user pays principle saying that the 4% of his rates set aside for the library budget represented $384 a year personally and he, together with many other big ratepayers, never use or intend to use the library. Councillor Cosford also supported the user pays principle saying that 4% represented a lot of money to some people and if a person's recreation was reading "we should collect from them." All other forms of recreation such as sport are paid for by the user through club membership fees, admission charges etc, he said.

Councillor Peach was also in favour of user pays. He said that in his experience a free service was usually abused and he did not think that twelve-twelfths of the ratepayers should be paying 4% towards the library budget when only one twelfth used the library service. He recommended that a letter be written to the National Library Service suggesting they adopt a more flexible approach to the user pays policy as each local library (throughout the country) contributes to the nationwide NLS loan service by making their books available.