Bury Council have now published the first part of their review of the library service across the Borough.  The review had a total savings target of £540,000 to be implemented over a two year financial period between April 2013 and March 2015.

Phase 1 of the review aims to generate savings of £240,000 in 2013/14.

Proposals for Phase 1 focus on the non-filling of vacancies, voluntary early retirements and the re-structuring of services primarily at Bury Library.

Cllr Bevan outside Ramsbottom Library

Phase 2 of the review will aim to generate further savings of £300,000 and will affect the other Libraries around the Borough – including Ramsbottom.

The proposals represent a reduction in staffing at Bury Library of some 9.2 full time equivalent posts, and also in some service levels. A further 1.3 full time equivalent staff posts exist at Bury Library which are either vacant or covered on a temporary basis.

The current core library service provision and current opening hours to the public will be maintained.  Re-organisation will be managed in such a way as to minimise the effect on front line service delivery.

The key Bury Library related features of the proposals are:

• Retention of current opening hours
• Retention of the Council Information Point.
• Retention of Computer Room with public internet access
• Borough-wide retention of free request service
• Development of the eBook offer and a reallocation of book fund to purchase eBooks
• Development of a borough wide community history service, by increased joint working between existing local history, archives and museums  services
• Expansion of self service by the introduction of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology
• Changes to the delivery of lending, reference & information services
• Removal of the in-house Cataloguing Service
• Reconfiguration of Toy Library Service on a Borough-wide basis

The decision to implement the cuts will be made at the next meeting of Bury Council’s Cabinet on 28 November 2012.