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.
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.