Templeman calls out library funding cuts

He slammed the Barnett Government over its decision to cut nearly $2 million announced in the May budget, including money to pay for books to be shipped between libraries at the request of readers.

“Libraries are important for education and learning for young children and families and these changes will affect them,” he said.

“And how dumb is this Barnett government?

“They are axing funding and these services to libraries at a time when public libraries are experiencing even greater visitations.”

Mr Templeman also said the Better Beginnings program was also at risk.

This program has seen 60 000 literacy bags delivered every year to every family with a new baby and all new children starting school.

“Better Beginnings has been a magnificent and important initiative which we have had here in Mandurah for a number of years.” Mr Templeman said.

Mr Templeman also took aim at the City of Mandurah who he said had axed three library staff after implementing an automated exchange system for returning and borrowing books.

“This really disappoints me, not just because three local jobs have been axed, but also because our local Library staff do an amazing job and the council could have redirected their work into the important early literacy area,” he said.

Arts minister John Day refuted claims Better Beginnings had been put at risk by the funding cuts.

“The Better Beginnings Family Literacy program is not at risk,” he said.

“On the contrary, the Liberal-National Government has allocated nearly $8 million to the program through until 2018.

“So far, Better Beginnings has reached more than half a million Western Australian families with young children, and Better Beginnings packs will continue to be delivered by the State Library of WA.”

He said the state library, the WA Local Government Association and Public Libraries WA were working on a long-term solution to manage the inter-library loan system, but funding for libraries was the responsibility of local governments.

A spokesperson for the City of Mandurah said the introduction of the self-service system would free up library staff to deliver more early years services and value-adding learning activities.

“The growth of these services will continue in July 2017 with the City planning to open a new library and community facility in Lakelands to service the fast-growing northern part of the city,” the spokesperson said.

“Library services continue to grow and evolve with more of our customers using new resources like ebooks and the ‘Fab Lab’ Makers Space, which is making libraries accessible to a whole new generation.

“There is also library staff time dedicated to language classes and digital learning classes to help our community learn new skills.”