Council / Library service asks for public’s views as it targets £48,000 savings
SHETLAND Library is looking to save £48,000 this coming year – with the public asked to give their thoughts in an online survey.
It comes as Shetland Islands Council looks to trim its spending in 2023/24.
The savings target for the library service, which is run by the council, represents four per cent of its total budget.
The budget covers public, school and mobile libraries and online services.
The survey said the service is “reducing and changing some posts” within its team.
“This is to save money but also to make the structure more resilient,” it said.
“We have to find further savings on staffing during the year. This means timetabling will be tighter, with less relief cover.
“We may have to do less, or not be able to serve you as quickly. However, our intention is to maintain opening hours and all general services.”
The library also intends to save £7,000 on resources, including potentially buying fewer books.
The survey also said it plans a “major project” to replace the library’s online systems.
“This would save money in future years and improve services, but will further add to pressure on staff time during 2023-24.”
It is also set to replace its online newspaper service Pressreader with a different option – NewsBank – which costs less.
The library will be stopping two of its online reference services, Oxford and Euro Newsstream. This is because similar resources are available on the National Library of Scotland (NLS) website which people can access free of charge.
To cut costs the team is also considering dropping eComics from the Libby app as they are the least used eBook products.
More widely it is reviewing its two eBook suppliers Borrowbox and Libby, but changes would only be made after “careful consideration”.
The survey said the current library budget of £990,729 is lower than it was in 2011, with the service operating with nearly 30 per cent less staff than it did.
The ‘cost per visit’ is lower than the Scottish average and the fifth cheapest in Scotland, and it enjoys some of the highest borrowing and visit figures in the UK.
When asked about the review a spokesperson for Shetland Islands Council said: “Services across the council are exploring ways to address additional cost pressures in 2023/24.”
Reviews are set to be carried out across all departments to find savings.
However, councillors imposed a further in-year savings target of one percent across the council.
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