Fionn O’Dea
Deputy News Editor
Trinity College Library’s budget for the year is to be cut by a net sum of €792,645, The University
Times has learned. The cuts will affect investment in books, periodicals and conservation among other areas but will not affect the salaries of library staff. The library’s opening hours, meanwhile, have avoided tampering, having been targeted at this stage last year.
The focus of the cuts is constrained by the terms of the Croke Park Agreement. The agreement
guarantees that public servants will not have their salaries cut until 2014, other than those applied in 2009 and 2010, and protects public sector workers from compulsory redundancies until the same date. Despite opposition calls of late to re-examine the agreement, Taoiseach Enda Kenny claimed early last week that it would not be subject to “unilateral re-negotiation.”
The library, however, will continue to suffer from a decrease in staff numbers. By the end of the
month, three staff members will have retired during this calendar year, with no replacements
coming in. The library has lost over 20 staff members in this way over the last three years. This is as a result of the college-wide Employment Control Framework (ECF) that prohibits the replacement of lost staff. The ECF is a tool for government to achieve their intended reduction of public sector numbers to 294,700 by the end of 2014, equating to an average annual reduction of approximately 3,300 between the years 2011 and 2014.
Speaking to The University Times after a previous round of library cutbacks, Library Keeper Trevor Peare commented that the loss of staff with only “bits and bobs” arriving as replacement meant that the library was suffering from a loss of institutional memory. 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.
The cuts are part of a continuing trend of cuts in College, reflecting decreased investment in
the education sector and a desire for third level education to cost less for the government. The
mandatory Student Contribution Charge currently stands at €2,250 and will continue to rise by €250 a year until 2015. Earlier this month, meanwhile, College announced plans to double the number of non-EU students studying in Trinity to 2,000, in part to boost revenue streams because these students
Towards the end of the last college year, Trinity library introduced a new self-service borrow/
return system that allows students to conduct their business in the absence of library staff. There is believed to be no correlation between these cuts and the library’s move towards increased self-service, however, the presence of such technology is likely to soften the blow on students caused by likely future cuts and unreplaced staff.
Despite the severity of this year’s cutbacks, returning students will also notice the new printing
and copying service that has begun operation in the Library. Payment for these machines is to be conducted electronically, meaning that students will be unable to top up their accounts at a machine in a copying room or online. Kopikat cards formally used to print in the library will be incompatible with the new system.
