Oxford's library services are planning to make cuts in the region of £2 million, which could lead to two hundred job losses over the next five years. However, library services directors say long term reform plans will benefit students, with extended opening hours and several million pounds worth of investment.
Oxford University Library Services is the largest library system in the UK, holding almost 15 million items and employing 700 staff in 80 libraries throughout the city. Catherine Hilliard, the librarian for St John's College, said maintaining such a system is increasingly expensive, with the cost of books and periodicals inflating at a higher rate than anything else. Most of the staffing cuts would come from the clerical sector, reducing staff numbers by over one quarter.
UNISON branch secretary Alan Jenkins, who represents library clerical staff, said the plans gave cause for concern. "We are not only worried that members' jobs are under threat, but also that the knowledge level in reading rooms will not be available in the future if lower grade staff are employed at lower salaries."
However, the Acting Deputy Director of OULS, David Perrow, said the planned programme of over £100 million of investment will create a more efficient service, with consolidation of libraries leading to a more streamlined staffing system. Space is also a problem for Oxford's libraries, with empty shelves decreasing every year. As The Oxford Student reported last week, Oxford is unwilling to contribute to a national store, intended to ease pressure on individual university libraries. However, the university's plans for their own store, which would hold 8.25 million books, have come under fire from environmentalists, who say the £27 million development in Osney Mead would destroy famous views of the city. Debbie Dancer, the Director of the Oxford Preservation Trust, said: "It is a building which, if it was in the centre of town, would fill Christ Church Tom quad, right in the middle of the view. In a nutshell, our dreaming spires landscape will be lost."
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