CC110a - Book Fund

Overview

Outline of Proposal

In 2011-12, 978,209 items were issued from the borough’s libraries.  The total replacement value of the stock holding for the library service, including books and other resources is just over £3.5 million.

In the light of the significant strain on Council resources we are proposing to permanently remove £38,000 from the existing book fund budget, leaving a fund of £200,000 to buy book stock from 2013/14 onwards.  The proposed reduction in funding would mean that we would be able to refresh just under 6% of the library resources annually. 

To mitigate the loss to the book fund, it is proposed that the service no longer issues music CDs or DVDs.  Demand for borrowing music CDs and general DVDs has decreased nationwide. Loans of feature film DVDs have increased in Rochdale, but the service costs more to administer than the income it generates and it is service management’s view that the cost of administering this provision as a public service outweighs the public benefit when alternative, cost effective, commercial provision is available. 

In 2010/11, £200,000 was permanently removed from the library book fund, reflecting a downward movement in book issues, improved procurement practices and removing the gap between the amount budgeted for resource procurement and the amount actually being spent.  £100,000 of this funding was used to pay for technology to help modernise and improve the services we deliver.

In the 2012/13 budget a further one year only reduction to the book fund was made of £100,000, allowing only a very limited amount of stock to be procured in this financial year.  Given the need to provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ library service and the volume of issues, it is not however considered sustainable to reduce the book fund by this amount on a permanent basis.

General Impact

At this stage we are not anticipating there to be a significant impact on any protected group.

There may be a minor impact on people with less income however alternative provision is available.  CDs and DVDs are not considered an essential council service and not having them in place will not present significant disadvantage. See Equality Impact Assessment for full details of the impact assessment.

Impact on Service Users    

Library service users will be affected by this proposal as it will mean that they are no longer able to access DVDs and CDs through the library service. See Equality Impact Assessment for full details of the impact assessment.

The indicative saving for this proposal is £26,000.

As the proposal will affect service users, we have undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment to identify likely or actual effects on people with protected characteristics. The Equality Impact Assessment will be reviewed and updated as required, taking account of consultation feedback.

You can find the full proposal document and Equality Impact Assessment below in the related documents section.