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Mayor Wayne Brown has suggested libraries are falling into disuse, comparing them to telephone boxes.
Auckland Council’s latest quarterly performance report showed a number of areas where libraries were underperforming.
Targets for the number of checked out books, website visits, library visits and memberships were unmet in the latest report.
Some slow months are being cited as to why council fell short of those targets, but the report was optimistic that libraries are recovering after Covid-19 lockdowns.
At council’s Governing Body meeting on December 14, Mayor Brown used the unmet targets to say libraries were being used less and less.
“We cane ourselves for the public trends that are happening but basically libraries are becoming less important than they used to be,” he said.
He suggested adjusting the targets to match with expectations.
“It’s the public’s right to have a trend. They don’t use post boxes or telephone boxes as much; they don’t use libraries as much.”
Council’s customer and community services director, Claudia Wyss, was quick to correct the Mayor, explaining that library visits have been growing, despite not meeting the targets.
“Library visits, year on year, have grown 17 percent, active members have grown nine percent, new registrations have grown 19 percent and e-issues have grown 37 percent,” Wyss said.
The targets were set as a part of council’s last Long-Term Plan and Wyss said council was unable to predict the lockdowns from Covid-19. “We are actually seeing a stronger rebound than even we had anticipated.”
Chief executive Phil Wilson recommended a refresh of targets in council’s next Long-Term Plan.
