Libraries look to make savings
Over the next six weeks Warwickshire County Council’s Library and Information Service is canvassing views on charging library members for using library computers.
At the moment all card-holding Warwickshire library members have free access to the public computers in our 34 libraries across the county.
These computers can be used for going online, emailing, researching, social networking, word processing and lots more. Children under 12 can use a wide range of fun and safe sites in the ‘Walled Garden’.
Non-member library visitors have been charged for this access since last year and now, following on from Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet recommendations in October, the Library Service needs to investigate introducing charges for library members.
Ayub Khan, Warwickshire County Council’s Head of Libraries (Strategy), said: “The Library Service has been facing tighter budgets for quite a while. The recent economic downturn will make matters worse as Warwickshire County Council looks to make savings and keep costs down through the recession.
"So we need to investigate further potential economies. Our network of public computers is fairly costly to run and needs constant updating. We are conducting a survey to see what people think about the proposed charges before any final decisions are made.”
David Reed, Deputy Head of Libraries (Operations), said: “Libraries provide a wide range of services to the whole community and receive many comments and suggestions on these throughout the year. This survey is an excellent opportunity for our customers to share their views on how we operate our public computers in this challenging financial climate.”
To have your say on this matter, and to answer a number of questions to help us, please pick up a survey form from your local library or go online to http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/libraries and click on the link.
We need to know your views by Saturday 14th February 2009.