REDBRIDGE: Thousands of library books 'vanish'

9:11am Tuesday 11th November 2008

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ALMOST 175,000 books have disappeared from Redbridge’s libraries over the past five years - and the council do not know where they have gone.

The shock revelation, which emerged following a Freedom of Information request by the Guardian, show current library stocks are 26 per cent down on 2003, and comes weeks after it emerged that the council has been taking reference titles off shelves and putting them on computers instead.

But exactly where the books have gone remains a mystery.

The council has admitted it does not keep records of the number of books it sells on, and were unable to guarantee to the Guardian that the missing books had not been pulped or burnt.

South Woodford Library user and mum-of-two Sasha Chittka said: “It’s really appalling and sad that this is happening.

“What I find quite surprising is that they never informed anyone about this. It’s as if they’ve made this decision to get rid of books without asking anyone.

“And the policy of putting titles on computers seems to be based on an assumption that everyone can access the internet, which is not an assumption I would make. It’s so much more convenient and pleasing to get information from books.”

According to the data, in April of this year there were 495,901 books in the borough’s libraries, but back in April 2003 the total was 670,463.

Fellow library user Julian Walker, who works at the British Library, said he found the drop in stock very worrying.

“Physical books are the things which are going to last. They last for centuries whereas it’s the digital stuff that becomes obsolete within a generation.

“I think it’s very autocratic of them to have done this without any consultation.

“By putting books on computers it’s basically saying you’ve got to pay twice, you’re paying for the library service through council tax and then you’ve got to pay again for internet access.

“There’s a level of arrogance implicit in this. According to PC World only 46 per cent of people have broadband so only a minority can access it.”

But Mark Taylor, of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, said the recent developments in Redbridge were not unique.

“It’s part of a national trend in libraries and it’s also reflective of what’s happening in the publishing industry when it comes to reference titles,” he said.

“If it’s an improvement of service then that’s fantastic, but local authorities have to make sure that the users are sufficiently computer literate to access it.”

A spokeswoman for the council’s library service said: “Stock levels have fluctuated in Redbridge Libraries over the last 10 years, and these figures should be interpreted within the context of significant other developments in Library Services in Redbridge during this time.

“In 2000, public PCs were installed in all libraries as part of the nationwide ‘People’s Network’ programme. The number of PCs has increased over the years to over 100, and these continue to be popular and well used.

“In 2004, Redbridge was a founder borough of the London Libraries Consortium. This initiative gives customers access to the stock over other London Boroughs via a shared computer system. For a small charge, books requested by users from other boroughs are delivered to the branch of their choice.

“Since 2004 the consortium has grown from the original three boroughs to 11, with another joining later this year. Currently the shared total book stock holding of these 11 boroughs is over 5,000,000 items. The library service regards PCs and online resources as complementing, rather than replacing book stock.

“The Library service will continue to try and maximise access for all residents to the widest possible range of books and information resources, both in paper and electronic form.“