Any politician who genuinely proposes cutting library services is showing their ignorance of both finance and the purpose of local government/community services, to say nothing of their inability to accurately represent what their constituents actually want - ThreadSky

liamjboardman.bsky.social • 16 hours ago

Any politician who genuinely proposes cutting library services is showing their ignorance of both finance and the purpose of local government/community services, to say nothing of their inability to accurately represent what their constituents actually want

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liamjboardman.bsky.social•16 hours ago

In Ōtautahi Christchurch in 2023/24, 95% or residents were satisfied with the libraries- the only things that they were more satisfied with were The Botanic Gardens, children's education programmes on civil defence and sustainability, and the partnership service for approving developments

liamjboardman.bsky.social•16 hours ago

In contrast, there was only 36% approval for the state of the footpaths, and trust in the council's openness and transparency were at a dismal 21%

ahawkins.bsky.social•15 hours ago

This is always a useful data set but I’d be cautious about following it literally unless you want to put more car parking absolutely everywhere

liamjboardman.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Yeah true, in Chch the satisfaction with on street car parking is 'only' 56%, and that's with the proliferation of Wilson's car parks everywhere

ahawkins.bsky.social•15 hours ago

The top three complaints in Dunedin would include both the state of our roads and the proliferation of road works

liamjboardman.bsky.social•15 hours ago

In 2023/24, the CCC spent just under 54 million on its libraries- a big number to be sure, but it works out to about $140 per person, and it still only accounts for about 4% of the council's total spending for the year

liamjboardman.bsky.social•15 hours ago

In that same year, across both its physical and digital collections, the libraries issued items 4,750,000 times- approx 12 issues for every person in the entire city. Given that only half the city even has membership, the average number of issues per member is in fact closer to 25 in a year

liamjboardman.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Now, I recognise that the following may not be the most rigorous social accounting methodology, but I think using these numbers *alone*, we can easily argue that the value the library provides is at least *double* the cost of its budget

liamjboardman.bsky.social•15 hours ago

The basis for that argument is this: that every issue of a book (or dvd, cd, audiobook etc.) means that the issuer is not having to pay the cost of buying that item in a store. Instead of paying $26 in Whitcoulls to buy the new Richard Osman book, they've saved that much by issuing it at the library

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