Death by a thousand cuts may be an old saying but it is particularly relevant to todays NSW libraries as they fight to retain funding from the NSW state government.
The NSW public library association (NSWPLA) is the peak body for the for support and advocacy of the states 368 libraries and their Councils and is holding its annual WITCH Conference commences on Wednesday 22 November 201. It is using the conference to both challenge traditional thinking in the library sector but to also highlight the contingency funding cuts the library system is facing.
‘The NSW state government provides the lowest per capita funding for libraries of all states and territories in Australia,’ said NSWPLA President, Councillor Dallas Tout.
‘State funding represented just 7.5 per cent of the total operating costs of NSW libraries In 2015/16, a significant reduction compared to the 23.6 per cent state contribution in 1980.’
The ongoing decrease in state funding is now resulting in the attrition of staffing, opening hours, services and programs in the NSW public library network as local government struggles to meet the funding shortfall.
‘NSWPLA is extremely concerned about the state government’s lacklustre attitude to the NSW public library network, which continues to experience growth for the broad range of physical and virtual services that our libraries offer at no charge to residents across the state.
‘It is ironic that NSW – the state that provides the lowest per capita contribution of all – established a Library Act in 1939 to ensure the prosperity of its libraries and to encourage local councils to provide them to their communities” Cr Tout commented.
‘It would seem that the state has comprehensively reneged on its original undertaking.’
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