Closing The Books on Libraries
The current climate in local government, and the fate of libraries
by Gordon Campbell.
In Kaitaia and Kaikohe, residents must pay $15 in a “membership fee” to be able to use their public library. In Matamata, borrowers have to pay $1 a week to rent ordinary non-bestseller books. In Dannevirke and Pahiatua, library users over 18 have to pay $10 a year as a ‘borrowing card fee’ to rent books. In the Wairarapa, Tasman, Buller Westland/Hokitika. Selwyn and Gore regions, various charges apply for ordinary stock on the shelves. In Tauranga, the local council is reportedly aiming to recoup up to $430,000 via library charges over the next three years, by introducing a user-pays regime for free adult fiction and non-fiction – initially at the rate of 50 cents a book, rising to 80 cents and then one dollar in a year’s time. It also proposes to cut seven equivalent full time library staff positions and reduce library stocks by 30,000 items.
This crackdown on libraries is becoming a familiar theme, around the country. Membership fees, rental charges, access fees, overdue fines and other cost barriers are going up. Simultaneously, the funds for new stock, for library staff numbers and opening hours, and for digital access are being squeezed – except on items or services where there is a robust regime of cost recovery. What the plight of libraries signals is the erosion of free access to even the basic forms of knowledge that they hold. Ironically, libraries are coming under siege in the wake of the economic recession – just as citizens are using them more and more for knowledge access, for entertainment and as a community meeting ground.
The crisis in library funding does not seem to be a reflection of an absolute scarcity in the ratepayer funds available to councils. All around New Zealand, councils are still readily finding funds for Rugby World Cup promotions – or to underwrite sporting and entertainment events whose main rewards are captured by a narrow stream of corporate interests in the bar, restaurant and accommodation sector. In the process, public libraries used annually by hundreds of thousands more users than a rugby stadium or a sporting arena, are being starved for funds to replenish their stock – not to mention keeping their services up to date, and affordable to all.
In Wellington, the crunch facing library branches and library services is looking particularly severe. As library researcher Marie Russell has pointed out from council documents, the Long Term Council Community Plan ( LTCCP) for 2009/2019 had forecast (p 125) a library operational budget for the current financial year of $23, 356,000. However, the Draft Annual Plan (DAP) for 2011/11 now forecasts ( p 119) the operational expenditure for libraries will be only $21,551,000.
Not only is this new DAP figure barely $8,000 above the 2008/09 libraries operational figure – it is, obviously far, far below the LTCCP figure and constitutes a projected cut in funding for the Wellington library service of $1,805,000. As Russell says, a shortfall of that magnitude can only imply that the Council is either contemplating the closure of some branch libraries in the near future, or a significant reduction in library services.
Since Russell made her figures known, a number of Wellington city councillors and council bureaucrats have denied that library branches in Wellington will be closed, or library services downgraded. At a public meeting on April 22, councillors and officials assured the audience that all parts of council were being asked to cut back because of the recession, and that this partially explained the discrepancy between the projected budget in the LTCCP, and the figures in the Draft Annual Plan.
In fact, this is not the case. Even at the same meeting, when asked if all sectors of council spending were being cut back to the same extent as libraries, council officials conceded that some sectors – they cited the cleaning of public toilets – would not be cut back, or as much. You bet. As Russell has since been able to demonstrate by comparing the LTCCP with the Draft Annual Plan, the Tourism Promotion budget is actually up by 10.8% and the Events Attraction and Support budget is up by 6.8%. Interestingly, for all the talk about tightening belts, the budget for City governance and Engagement is up by 7.11 %. On the other hand, the funding for city galleries and museums is down by 1.64%.
More to the point though, the funding for libraries is down by a whopping 7.73%. The pattern seems obvious. Those activities that entail delivery of benefits for the private sector are being supported by council, while those facilities used by the general public face funding cuts. Nor are the cuts to library services really the product of prudent management, as the councillors also tried to tell the April 22 meeting.
One can reasonably gauge for instance, the claimed savings in the library area that are being made. According to the council, this consists of savings on community computing ($100,000 at most, to be generous) a $400,000 saving over the last two years from self service options, and unspecified amounts from depreciation and new technology systems and computers. Even the most optimistic estimates of such items then, would still leave Wellington a long way short of bridging a $1.8 million library funding shortfall.
Down at Parliament, the fate of public libraries rarely gets onto the Beltway radar, aside from the recent cutbacks in the renovation plans for the National Library. Gareth Hughes, the new Greens MP and party spokesman on libraries is an exception to the rule. Within weeks of being in the House, he waded into the Tauranga council’s plans to impose a rental fee for general books, and to lay off staff.
Is this merely a local concern in Tauranga, or is it a reflection of what is happening nationwide? Hughes estimates about a quarter of the country’s library districts now have a system of charging for basic stock. “It is mostly in the smaller centres at the moment. But I think when you get it into bigger centres like Tauranga, this could be taken as having set a precedent, and it will happen more widely.”
Shouldn’t all sectors though, be taking their share of the cost cutting burden at the moment? “Some sectors are obviously not facing the same cost-cutting as libraries,” Hughes replies. “The fact is, libraries are a core public benefit. They should be funded from core council budgets. They are vital to communities as community hubs, and as places for people to meet – as well as in terms of their direct service to the community, which is as a provider of books, internet access and information.”
This is after all, he continues, Unesco’s Literacy Decade. “We have a growing literacy problem in New Zealand, and this is the wrong time to decrease access to libraries. The people that are going to be hit are the low paid, the elderly and young mums. It is also going to hit new migrants. This is just another barrier to getting access to information.”
Most libraries of course, already charge a nominal access fee for the library card, and there seems to be reasonably wide public acceptance for charging for CD.s DVDs and best sellers. Plainly, some forms of cost recovery are fair, and some aren’t – so, on what basis would Hughes draw the line? “ I think there’s a common public expectation that with DVDs best seller books, magazines – these are high demand items that date quite fast and entail a high capital cost for the library – that its reasonable to pay a small fee. But general items make up the bulk of the library’s stocks, and these should be free. For everyone.”
Logically, the emphasis on cost recovery could well be inducing libraries to buy more CDs, DVDs, magazines etc and to spend proportionately less on their core stock. “I don’t have any figures on that, but it seems a reasonable assumption. In Tauranga, they’re proposing to cut 30,000 books from [the four local libraries] stock. And they’re going to be reducing seven equivalent staff positions. So what you’re seeing is a decline in service, and a charging of higher fees for it.”
As mentioned, the demand for library services is – if anything- on the increase. Even so, is there evidence as to whether, as the library service becomes more expensive, this causes a drop in patronage? Historically speaking, Hughes indicates, Ashburton is still the main relevant example, Some years ago, he says, patronage dropped by around 40% when a fee for general books. was introduced. “They’ve subsequently gone back to a free book system.”
Given the rash of local government reform since the change of government, a conflict is emerging within councils, between public service delivery on the one hand, and a growing preference for funding the kind of activities believed to generate economic gains for the region. Or, at least, gains for the firms involved. Does Hughes see this being played in the funding problems facing public libraries ?
“ Yes, You are seeing that,” he says. “Tauranga again, is an example I am familiar with. They’re looking for $430,000 in fees from the local library system.” Problem being, central government has recently decided to allow heavier trucks on the nation’s roads – a decision that will have considerable financial repercussions on local councils in terms of paying for the wear and tear on local roads and bridges.” Regardless, the mayor of Tauranga has said he was happy and comfortable with the policy, even if this meant extra costs for the council. “So what you’re seeing is that its fine if the spending supports productivity gains for private companies – but if involves a public benefit, then the library is going to have to hunt for the money.”
In any provincial town around New Zealand, the public library is usually an imposing looking building. A sign of times past perhaps, when there was collective pride within communities, at possessing such an obviously beneficial asset. Even today, isn’t there a residual affection for libraries within the community that councils should be wary of violating?
“Absolutely,” Hughes agrees. “Walk into any library around the country and they’re packed with people doing a whole variety of things – reading magazines, working on their laptops, using library computers, students doing research, Even homeless people using the warmth and shelter of the library. Its not just about books or services, either. It is also a place for people to get together, to have coffee, for young mums to take their kids, for people to have Internet access that they can’t afford at home.
This happens to be local body election year. Why then, do budding councillors seem to be misreading the mood of their communities so badly on this issue ? To Hughes, libraries are but one front in a wider battle being waged around the country right now, one that is questioning the role of what a council does. “Are [councils] there just to facilitate corporate transfers of wealth – or are they there to provide services for the public? Because I think there is a right wing ideology that says councils should stick to collecting the rates, paving the roads and providing footpaths and lights.” For people who believe in that agenda, he points out, community parks, libraries, and museums should all be treated as private goods, and paid for on a user pays model.
Or paid for by charity? “ Or by charity. And that is what we’re seeing in Tauranga, with the seven equivalent staff that are being lost. They’re expecting to take up the slack with voluntary positions.”
From the vantage point of middle class privilege, everyone now has the internet. Libraries – do they still exist ? – are seen as receptacles for fusty books on dusty old shelves. In reality, libraries are more relevant now than ever, as a means of bridging the digital divide so that those who cannot privately afford the internet can access it publically, at reasonable cost. This is the same role that libraries have been performing for over a century, with digital access being merely the latest technology on the block. Libraries have always provided easy access to information – and with it, social participation – to those otherwise unable to afford the price tab,
Pool people together in a library and the access cost to knowledge, information and entertainment – for a book, magazine, CD or DVD – comes down, to within reasonable reach of everyone. Right now, that entire process of empowerment is under threat – for example, from the fee hikes being levied on individual users. Hughes, to his credit, is not just sending out warnings and issuing complaints about this trend. Later this year he will be promoting either a supplementary order paper or a private member’s bill that would prohibit councils from charging for the general stock on library shelves.
“At the moment as I understand it,” Hughes concludes, “ the Local Government Act enshrines a ratepayers’ right to free access to a library. That means free membership. Some libraries do charge for the plastic – but the membership is free. So what I’m investigating is whether we can amend the Local Government Act, in order to make [the stock of general] books free as well.”
By and large, library defenders tend to frame their case on the role of libraries as social and recreational assets, which indeed they are. Yet in the process, the economic benefits that libraries also bring to the retail sectors of the cities in which they are sited, tend to be overlooked. In Wellington for instance, the expenditure on libraries is located in council plans within the same silo as parks and swimming pools. Libraries could just as credibly be situated in the economics section of council budgets and plans.
Reason being, libraries generate more foot traffic annually for a wider range of retail businesses in most cities, than the multi-million sports stadiums tend to deliver. Most of the major event council spending serves to benefit relatively few firms in the hospitality and retail sector, who enjoy most cof the financial gains from the large amounts of ratepayer monies lavished by councils on the building and maintenance of sporting arenas.
The key term here is “footfall.” Library visits and shopping commonly go hand in hand. In this study of the economic contribution made by libraries to the city centres in which they are sited, the authors conclude that libraries increase the foot traffic for retail outlets, but libraries and councils have been slow to market the economic benefits that result :
The greatest benefit of the presence of a public library in retail centres is increased footfall. Shopping centre locations also benefit the library, and this is often perceived as being more significant than the library’s impact on the shops. Recommendations are made as to how libraries could maximise the awareness of their value and the benefits they provide.
An extensive store of information on the economic value of libraries to retailers, and to the wider goal of urban renewal can be found in this Sheffield University study However, few councils (or councillors) bother to promote the economic benefits that libraries bring to the retail life of the city, or the role that they play in regenerating the urban core. Instead, libraries are treated almost exclusively as a cost burden. Plainly, similar disciplines are not evident when councils sink ratepayer funds into their dealings with some elements in the private sector. In Wellington, the case of the $2 million in business rates reportedly owed to the council by the entrepreneur Terry Serepisos is seen by some as merely the tip of the iceberg.
Meanwhile, property investor Richard Burrell has criticised Wellington City Council for not pursuing rates debts – and claimed defaulters are using the council as a cheap source of finance.
“The easiest way for a commercial ratepayer to get a loan in this town is to simply not pay the rates. The council does virtually nothing to collect them. It is the loan you can get without even making an application.”
This is not an isolated example. Lindsay Shelton has pointed out on his Scoop blog, that Wellington councillors have indicated an interest in spending an unbudgetted $2.4 million to create a temporary “tensile fabric structure”on the eastern side of Te Papa. Bizarrely, the same council seems to be simultaneously exploring the feasibility of constructing (on the same site) a building that won a design competition for the location back in 2005.
Money again, does not seem to be a problem. Similarly, every few months, the Wellington City Council issues a newsletter detailing its plans for the Rugby World Cup celebrations. While the capital’s share of the RWC bounty extends to a miserly hosting of only five first round games and two quarterfinals, the November 2009 council newsletter (named “Absolutely Positively Right By Your Side”) revealed that council CEO Garry Poole and other top council officers had been meeting with local retailers to discuss ways to enhance “ the cleanliness of the city, parking enforcement and public transport.” All agreed that the RWC is.”an opportunity for Wellington to demonstrate and display a unique and high quality retail experience.” Yep, that sounds like core council business.
To that end, scarce council funds have stretched to providing new artificial surfaces on the city’s sportsfields, to ensure that our rugby visitors get to train on only the finest of facilities, that “comply with best practice at the time of the Tournament.” In addition, the newsletters reveals that council funds will also be found for this RWC-related shebang :
[RWC] plans include a major festival in the city for all to enjoy. “We’ll be pulling out all the stops to ensure this is a month-long celebration that everyone feels part of,” says the council’s RWC 2011 Director, Derek Fry. “That’s what will make RWC 2011 so memorable.”
Wellington is not the only city that is feeling giddy about the Rugby World Cup. Similar signs of largesse are evident around the country. Community facilities stand to be the loser in the rush to underwrite a rugby party that will deliver most of its rewards to the private sector, while the rest of the community inherits the hangover.
What Rugby World Cup fever exemplifies (more than anything) is the mindset in which sport is considered not trivial (by men) but reading (an activity associated mainly with women) certainly is. Years ago in A Room Of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf put her finger on the common double bind whereby women are first assigned a restricted place, and then ridiculed for occupying it :“Speaking crudely, football and sport are important, the worship of fashion, the buying of clothes, trivial, and these values are transferred from life to fiction.” And back again. A few years ago, then-Wellington city councillor Chris Parkin insisted (City Voice, May 1, 1997) that libraries were even then, an anachronism : “The single largest group of users were white middle class, middle-aged women borrowing lascivious pot-boilers.”
These days, the same sentiments tend to be wrapped in economic jargon, and in the rationales for cost recovery. To be fair, the question of free borrowing from New Zealand libraries is not an entirely new one. In the early decades of the 20th century for instance, not all the 18 libraries that the billionaire US philanthropist Andrew Carnegie built in New Zealand stuck to his explicit desire that borrowing, and not just admission, should always be free. Until recently though, most councils did strive to meet Carnegie’s ideal.
Not for much longer, perhaps. The outlook for community facilities seems bleak, if the Rodney Hide local government reforms are allowed to roll on through council structures. In future, library users will need to fight to protect the good things that public libraries provide for the many – as opposed to the economic benefits that Hide is seeking to deliver, to the few.
FOOTNOTE: Hat tip for the Virginia Woolf quote to US film theorist Tania Modleski and her 1988 essay on Rear Window.
ENDS
Tags: Gareth Hughes, Libraries, Local Government Reform, Rodney Hide, Terry Serepisos
Thanks for that very informative article.
I was fortunate to have access to a Carnegie from the time I first went to school in the small village that I grew up in.
This set the pattern of reading for both pleasure and research that continues to this day.
Obviously I also use the internet but the ability to borrow and study a book from a local library at no charge , or request one for a small charge from another library, should be enshrined as a right for every New Zealander.
I am appalled at the apparent changes being considered as detailed in your article. Particular shame on Absolutely Wellington for being such a short sighted council.
I would suspect that there is a very high correlation between high archivers and high usage of Libraries as children and on into adult hood.
It is appalling that Library funding should be cut in favour of the Rugby World Cup. The befits of which the article correctly points out will be the few, where as Libraries benefit the many.
Free access to Libraries is the best social leveller that there is. With a Library, anyone who wants to improve themselves or their children can do so.
The voice of the general public has been lost in recent times, due, I think, to the business whom control the media for their benefit. The Media sucks up to those that pays them the money, and that is Big Business now as opposed to us the general public.
No amount of moaning will get anywhere, as the politicians know without the media, the public will do nothing. What is needed is for a good old fashion demonstration by Library users on the street outside Libraries.
The article refers to the Wairarapa area as charging for ordinary books on the shelves. This does not apply in Masterton. All our fiction, other than the latest best sellers, is free of charge as is all our nonfiction. We charge only for best sellers, CDs and DVDs and we do not make any charges for membership for Masterton residents and ratepayers.
The importance and resulting effect Libraries have on the communities is very hard, if not impossible, to quantify and so very hard for accountants and people who look solely at the bottom line, to justify spending on.
Any reduction signals to the community that Libraries are seen as less than important, and with each generation that sees Libraries under-valued their funding and importance gets further down-graded.
I commend Gareth Hughes for wading into the argument, are there any other politicians doing likewise? How effective is a minor party entering the fray? What does he suggest we do to challenge this apparant council mind-set?
The sad fact is that once funding is reduced it is very unlikely to get it increased in future years, libraries are seen as easy targets by too many cash strapped councils. Perhaps more lobbying needs to be done in council election years.
Its worth noting in the latest Kiwis Count survey of public services produced by the State Services Commission libraries were the second most used public service in the country in 2009 and scored an 82% satisfaction rating, down from 83% in 2007. The report can be found here http://www.ssc.govt.nz/display/document.asp?docid=7621
the ability to borrow and study a book from a local library at no charge , Should be enshrined as a right for every New Zealander.
Without it literacy among New Zealanders will fall and we as a country will be the poorer for it.
Free access to Libraries is the best social leveller that there is. With a Library, anyone who wants to improve themselves or their children can do so.
Equal access to books information should be a basic human right.
Yes and Wellington are very slow to collect very overdue rates from Terry Serepisos in excess of $2 million dollars but quick to cut library services etc.
Why waster thousand on a world cup party the community doesn’t gain anything from it. We love our Libraries!!!
Brilliant article. Well written and very thorough, covers everything which needs to be said in this case. I find what councils are doing in Tauranga and elsewhere absolutely despicable – these measures will reduce library access for those who most need it; it will reduce literacy. I know for a fact (knowing some of them personally) that the librarians themselves are against these moves, being foisted upon them by short-sighted, selfish, croneyish councillors. I am utterly appalled.
I’m not usually a Green supporter but I like what Gareth Hughes is saying.
I’m not usually a Green Party supporter but I like what Gareth Hughes is saying. Our public libraries need protecting and strengthening.
Thanks Gordon.
Public libraries were are a part of my life from an early age, as well as school and private libraries – I’ve even got a poem celebrating our mobile library that used to come to Blackball once a fortnight, in The Late Great Blackball Bridge Sonnets (Sonnet xxxvi).
The National Library van used to come regularly to the Workingmen’s Club and MSA (Mutual School of Arts), where the miners provided a room for a local library. In those rooms, my parents, my siblings, myself and the rest of the town got our free books from there.
When I was working in London during the dog days of the Thatcher regime, the heat went on Council libraries there, to cut staff and charge – in a society where the poor and the disadvantaged used such venues as social clubs to leaven the oft times bleak and stressful urban living.
People like Rodney Hide are the enemies of civilization, of you, of me, and of the future.
Charging local residents for membership of their Public Library is in breach of the Local Government Act, the most important piece of delegated legislation under which territorial authorities operate. No resident is obliged to pay to belong to their local library, and any fee could be legally challenged by an individual affected by this illegal practice. Where are our lawyer friends who enjoy reading? Do any politicians with similar views to those of Gareth Hughes live in areas where there is even a “token” member charge for locals? A test case is needed. I think Councils will speedily back off, as the Act is very clear on this point.
“Informing New Zealand” published by the Open Polytechnic mentions that under the Local Government Act 2002 that where public library services are provided the ratepayers are entitled to join the library for free. How are some libraries able to get round this or have the rules changed? I would love to know.
Thanks, Gordon, for a well-written and informative article.
As a library-user who graduated from rural Country Library Service as a child, to visiting the local library in Matamata during school holiday visits to my Dad (to complete homework assignments in secondary school), to seeing my children and their peers become heavy after-school users of Wellington Public Library for homework-buddy sessions, I have a very strongly vested interest in seeing public, free access to written resources continue.
As a researcher in my own right, I see this as the tip of an iceberg which could swell to encompass the National Archives, National Library, The Turnbull Library, the Hocken Library, and other such important reservoirs of papers, books and illustrations that are scattered around our country, not always under the aegis of a national heritage ministry budget.
It would be a very short-sighted Government that allowed local bodies to down-grade their library collections during a time of recession, when upskilling the newly redundant is a paramount goal, and keeping those still to enter the workforce motivated to achieve and given adequate resources to do so is also an important task for provincial areas, let alone our capital city.
The economic benefits alone for maintaining libraries seems like a no-brainer. I found this link via boingboing today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel_solis/4520024767/
OUR Community Libraries are a vital part of the fabric & SOUL of our Communities not only as an Educational resource centre for New Zealand’s entire population regardless of age, but also as a non-electronic, non-media-regulated source of information sharing at grass roots level.
In addition to our borrowing, I regularly find local events & activities for myself and daughter to experience, share & support through our library.
Properly fund OUR families and communities (and Schools /night classes)….. We ARE New Zealand……WE elect our government, WE fund our Councils.
Stop these indefensible cuts to fund irresponsible spending sprees
Go Gareth – I will be voting GREEN.
Great article.
And sadly- it’s not just local bodies. Here’s a university heading fast down the same road http://www.teu.ac.nz/?p=27
Barbarians.
The article was great. One problem though is the dumbing down of library collections. How often do we hear “it’s all on the internet”? It isn’t, but when you go to your library to get some depth, it can sometimes be hard to find anything better than what IS on the Internet. Society clearly reads less and less comprehensively than it used to. So how can we expect our libraries to carry the level of informaiton they used to, if no one uses it?
$ 10 a year is not a lot to pay for our well run Woodville library( it used to be free)! — BUT is it going to stay $10? The younger patrons seem to ‘Play’ on the free computer more than borrow or read books! What exactly DO we get for our rate payer dollars? probably more is spent on the glossy brochures our council sends to all it’s ratepayers!
Great article! I just wanted to add to the comments above about charging for library use being in breach of the Local Government Act. Many NZ libraries were funded by Carnegie. A stipulation of Carnegie funding was ongoing commitment by local authorities to providing free access to the library. It is probably too long ago to be legally binding but charging is definitely a moral breach of this agreement.
I love the community feel of the library, the Brighton library in Christchurch is amazing and a place you want to spend a few hours in, at home on the internet is not the same and yes it is good to go to a library which has a cafe nearby
I always feel I have a home away from home when I visit the libray in Wellington. It is sad to think of it being underfunded. Brawn over brain I guess.
Public funding can follow a simple formula – if you want to encourage an activity, fund from rates/taxes (to encourage use of commnuity good things like libraries, parks, preventative health care, education etc) but fund by user pays things you want ti discourage (to prevent waste, user pays for water use, rubbish collection, etc). Useful as a general guiding principle.
I’m tired. I’m tired of dragging my poor old body up again to defend the rights and necessities of life. After nearly 25 years (on and off) of assisting in the defence of Pnehaven Community Library it staggers me that it is happening again.
Fear not fellow citizens! Rise up! Squeal! Threaten to vote! It works! It is YOUR library. Now fight for it!
It takes money and time to build and maintain a well-stocked library. Having lived and worked in Africa, I’ve seen first hand the sad state of libraries that are under-funded, not given priority and are, therefore, ill-stocked. I’ve been on the receiving end of that and had to resort to purchasing numerous books for my family. Internet has its uses and its limitations – nothing as good as a wonderfully put-together reference/fiction book that becomes a child’s friend. Who loses out in the end? The children do.
Great article. Similar comments made at a recent lecture by Bob McKee. One wonders what values are driving these funding decisions. This year we have the opportunity to hold our councils accountable. Its time we made our voices heard. Vote. And if your are in Wellington, vote for change.
I am a student at the University of Canterbury and I have just heard that budget cuts are going to mean that our law library’s manager (who is an expert at legal research with an LLB) is going to be sacked. I think that this is a poorly reasoned decision and it can only lead to a lower standard of research skills in students. Very upset with Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Rodd Carr (known by many as the Butcher of UC).
Great article. Tauranga library is yet another under the fires of change and high fees each book loan. The community is not taking this lightly and great petitions circulating. Its great to see so many people passionate to maintain a great community service which is affordable
Good article although I would point out that I am a member of the “middle class” referred to in your article and am a heavy library user – with 2 kids under 5 we get to the library at least 2 or 3 times a week (sometimes more) – the kids love it. Sounds like we are pretty lucky here in Palmerston North – the central library in a well maintained and laid out building in the town centre, has regular events (esp for the kids), we don’t have to pay for a card and I’ve never paid to borrow a book. I’d like to think there’d be an uproar if it was threatened.