Councillor Justin Lester has replied to our story on Tuesday. We’ve reproduced it here in full, with his permission…
Hi WCC Watch,
Library User Statistics
I saw your blog comments about the central library user statistics, which a resident had provided and formed part of their submission on WCC’s draft annual plan.
Unfortunately the submitter failed to take into account that the library opens at 9.30am and is therefore only open for 30 minutes and not the full hour (meaning that you need to double the numbers shown in the first hour to accurately compare it with the evenings) . When this is taken into account the morning is busier than the evening.
At a per minute rate, on average there were 4.3 visitors from 9.30-10am, and 4.1 visitors from 7-8pm. These are lower than other times during the day. However it was felt to be too restrictive to propose cuts to both ends of the day, and the recommendation was to align to most Central City retail outlets. As the submitter also indicated, lower issues in the first 30 minutes of business are likely to arise from the fact that the issue transaction will be usually the last transaction of the visit.
Regarding the security desk, libraries staff have advised that the main purpose of the current security role is not operation of the security gate. There are many other duties such as patrolling each hour to maintain library policies, minimise theft opportunities and to identify and avoid potential issues before they escalate.
For the library staff to take over the full security role this would mean either
a) The information desk was closed for large periods of the day while a library staff member attended to these other duties such as hourly patrolling, cash security, attending security incidents, overseeing building services such as escalator operation or
b) Library staff positions increased to take account of these duties which would negate the savings
Hopefully this helps to clarify the submitter’s concerns. I received his submission and responded with the above comments.
Regards,
Justin Lester
WCC Watch 