Libraries ‘too important’ for local bodies to run

Press, 15 February 1989, Page 32

Libraries ‘too important’ for local bodies to run

By

JENNY LONG

Public libraries should be removed from local authority control and run by an independent board, says a visiting British researcher, Dr Dennis Lewis.

Dr Lewis, in Christchurch for the Library Association conference, said libraries were “far too important” to be left with local authorities. Instead, they could be funded from central Government, with three-year budgets. Any money made by the libraries would be returned to the library. At

present, any profit was returned to the local authority, to be used as it preferred. Dr Lewis, director of the British Association for Information Management, said he was proffering the idea in general terms and not advocating it specifically for New Zealand libraries. Local authorities had a host of conflicting calls on their funds, including health, housing, and transport. Libraries tended to be lower on the priority list. The climate for tighter funding from central Gov-

ernment could lead all local authorities to cooperate and share resources, Dr Lewis said. * “Why should everybody not have access to the university or polytechnic libraries, for example?” The libraries run by local authorities could establish groups of trustees who would be responsible for allocating the central funding. Libraries would have to provide a basic level of free services. Safeguards would be established to protect minority groups such as learning disabled.