Northern Ireland libraries to buy no new books due to funding shortfall

No new books will be bought by Northern Ireland's library service due to 'funding restraints'.

Libraries NI is funded by Stormont's Department for Communities which it's understood received £111m in the most recent Westminster budget. That's 15.5% less that it had sought.

The library service said there will be reduced opening hours across some libraries, at least until the end of October. The situation will then be reviewed.

Libraries NI said its board had "not taken this interim decision lightly". It has responsibility for 96 libraries in Northern Ireland.

Inflation has also had an impact, according to the organisation. It means there is a current shortfall of £1.749m.

£260,000 had been set aside for new books but the organisation said so far, they've been unable to spend any of it on new stock.

Various Stormont departments have had to deal with reduced funding following a budget announced by Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris earlier this year.

Following his announcement in April, civil servants warned that the current financial situation would leave them need to find around £800m through cuts and revenue-raising measures.

Chief Executive of Libraries NI, Jim O'Hagan, said the organisation is working 'very hard' to minimise the impact of the budget cuts.

"We are recycling our existing book stock," he told UTV.

He added: "We obviously have many books in stock so we're maximising those. Our staff are working hard to recycle those books around the library system but inevitably over a period of time the impact of not buying any new books will become much more apparent and will have many many impacts on the service.

"People who come to libraries in particular."

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities said: "A challenging 2023-24 Budget settlement provided the Department for Communities with £861.6m in Resource funding; representing a funding gap of £111.2m (15.5%) for the current financial year.

"Working closely with our delivery partners, we have sought to mitigate the significant and adverse impact of this sub optimal budget across the vast array of public services and support delivered by the Department. This culminated in decisions being made in June following Stage 1 of our Budget EQIA.

"This included the decision that a 5% reduction would be applied to our Arm’s Length Body budgets, including Libraries NI. Nor could any additional funding be provided to Libraries NI for their specific book stock requirements in 2023-24.

"Our shared priority remains supporting the most vulnerable and at-risk in our society, however, difficult decisions had to be made to live within the funding available.

"The Department will continue to engage with Libraries NI to ensure services are supported in what is a challenging budgetary landscape and acknowledges the positive contribution local libraries have made and continue to make to communities across Northern Ireland."

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