Opening hours severely slashed
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Ballymoney Library whose opening hours are going to be slashed by almost a third from June.
BALLYMONEY Library's opening hours are being slashed by almost a third in spite of a £2.39 million injection of funds to alleviate the 'pressing need' of Libraries NI announced last week.
From June, hours will drop from 57 to 40 hours - by far the biggest cut for any library in Northern Ireland with only Hollywood library coming close, losing 13.5 hours.
Local DUP MLA Mervyn Storey called the move a 'raw deal' for Ballymoney saying: "This is a wrong decision and Ballymoney has got a raw deal from the Department. You don't enhance or encourage a service by reducing hours. If this exercise is about encouraging people to use the library then they are not going the right way about it.
“There is reduced funding across the board but any reduction must be proportionate; Ballymoney has taken the biggest hit; there has to be a fair way to balance the books."
The implementation of the original proposals arising from the Review of Opening Hours for all libraries was deferred on December 21 after a massive 7000 people responded to the consultation.
REVISED PROPOSALS
Revised proposals were released by the Libraries NI Board last Thursday after DCAL Minister Carál Ní Chuilín announced £2.39 million to address what she described as 'the pressing need' of local libraries. But for Ballymoney the original proposal to slash hours from 57 to 40 remained unchanged.
Ballymoney is a Band 3 library but was formerly open 57 hours corresponding to a Band 1 library.
From now on all public libraries are categorised into one of six bands based on level of use:
Band 1 - 57 hours per week; Band 2 - 48 hours per week; Band 3 - 40 hours per week; Band 4 - 30 hours per week; Band 5 - 25 hours per week; and Band 6 - 18 hours per week. When asked how library use was measured and if Ballymoney Library had been downgraded from a Band 1 to a Band 3 a spokesperson for Libraries NI said: "The levels of use were calculated by analysing each library's loans, visits, computer use and the number of active borrowers. Ballymoney Library's total use was 137,530 during the period analysed and that placed the library in Band 3."
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