Trinity Library Keeper, Trevor Peare, explained that the cut-backs were “not so much a funding issue” but as a result of the college-wide Employment Control Framework (ECF) that prohibits the replacement of lost staff unless under strict regulations. Eighteen staff members have moved on in the last two years with the library able only to get in “bits and pieces” to take their place.
Mr Peare said that the library was mourning the loss of “institutional memory”, having seen five key staff members, including the two from the front of house as well as the head of Early Print, leave this September. He stressed that it was the absolute intention of library staff to keep the doors open at all costs, despite the necessity to move staff from the front desk.
“What you see is just the tip of the iceberg”, he explained, referring to the massive amounts of “behind the scenes work” necessary to keep the doors open at all.
The library receives roughly 2,000 books a week, which is the same in periodical issues, all needing to be catalogued. Furthermore, during busy times of the year, 5,000 books need to be shelved on a daily basis.
Library cut-backs in recent years have sparked colourful reactions, notably in November 2009 when eighty students occupied the library overnight for a total of twenty hours, amid a cut of €650,000 (38%) in the library’s book-buying budget. They also hoped to help restore opening hours to back above the national average. This year should see a fall of €150,000 in the book-buying budget from last year’s €850,000.
The new desk hours have affected certain courses more than others, with some having consistently late finishing times. One such course is Trinity’s new Master of Business Administration course, a course of seventy students, currently in its first year.
However, Mr Peare revealed that by January of next year, the library hopes to have in place a self-service borrow/return system and that contract negotiations are underway with American multinational 3M to provide the service. The system will allow students to borrow and return books even in the absence of desk staff. He praised the innovation of the library, saying that they were “ahead of the game”, pointing also to their ‘Stella Search’ cataloguing system, among one of few in the world.
Despite this cause for optimism, as long as it is deemed necessary for the ECF to remain in place, it is impossible to rule out future cut-backs and loss of services.”We’d love to be able to be open 24/7″ noted Mr Peare before acknowledging that “things will get much worse before they get better”.
