Council cuts back library hours

Gosford Council has cut back opening hours at Umina and Woy Woy libraries after a "review of library resources", according to council's director of community services and organisational development, Mr Terry Thirlwell.

Mr Thirlwell said changes would bring Gosford council libraries in line with other Local Government Areas across NSW.

The changes will see Woy Woy Library opening hours cut back by seven-and-a-half hours per week and Umina Library by nine hours per week.

Major changes to the opening hours will see Umina Library closed on Saturdays with a 5pm closing time on weekdays.

Current hours for Umina are 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 9.30am to 4pm on Saturdays.

Meanwhile Woy Woy Library will no longer have an extended closing time of 8pm on Thursdays and will close at 5pm weekdays under the new changes.

Opening hours at Woy Woy have also been reduced by two hours across the weekend with a new closing time of 12.30pm on Saturdays and 3pm on Sundays.

Mr Thirlwell said the changes would come into effect on May 1.

"Currently the Gosford LGA houses eight public libraries which operate for close to 380 hours per week," Mr Thirlwell said.

"Changes to library hours will bring us closer to the library operations of similar-sized Local Government Areas around the state, which each have an average of five libraries operating at around 268 hours per week.

"With these changes, Gosford City libraries will still operate in excess of standard hours at close to 300 hours per week."

Mr Thirlwell said funds have been reallocated to provide improved library resources and better maintain library facilities and no funding cuts have been made to library budgets.

"A decision has been made to reallocate library funding to focus on building better library resources and improving existing library facilities by changing the duration of library operating hours," Mr Thirlwell said.

"These changes have been adopted in full consultation with the relevant unions and council staff.

"No redundancies will be incurred as a result of these changes."

Press release, 15 Mar 2010 Terry Thirlwell, Gosford Council Website, 16 Mar 2010 Gosford Council