Anger at proposal to cut WA State Library hours
A proposal to cut the West Australian State Library's opening hours to help it meet Government cost-cutting targets has prompted an outcry.
Some are concerned the plan will hit students hard and impact on the vibrancy of the city.
Located in the heart of the city at the Perth Cultural Centre, the State Library is WA's biggest and the state's pre-eminent source of historical documents, records and books.
The ABC revealed on Thursday that the State Library board was considering a range of options to cut costs, including closing on weekends and earlier in the evening during the week.
The Royal Western Australian Historical Society's Kerry Smith said it would be terrible if there was any cut to the State Library's opening hours, but particularly weekends.
"We need these places open... State libraries are integral," she said.
"We need them open for students, we need them open for families. My husband and I take our grandkids into the library, they love it.
"You need to have access where students and people who can't come in from 9am to say 3:30pm during the week can access these collections so that we can grow intellectually as a city, a state and a nation.
"And that's what libraries are all about, growing the intellectual capacity of our nation and for community enjoyment."
Library 'integral to city's vitality'
Mrs Smith was concerned that restricting access to the State Library would also impact on the city's vitality.
"It's going to be so dead and that cultural centre is an integral part of what we are as Perth and Western Australia.
"It is our culture and the library is an integral part of that culture."
Opposition arts and culture spokeswoman Michelle Roberts said threats to cut the opening hours of the State Library flew in the face of any vision to create a more vibrant and liveable city.
"It makes no sense at all to have such an expensive resource sitting there and then to limit its opening hours," she said.
"Our State Library is used by thousands of people including many students.
"It plays a major role in the literary, historical, musical and artistic life of our state.
"We want WA to be a smarter, more innovative place that celebrates culture, the arts and learning."
The cost-cutting options are being explored by the State Library as part of an agency expenditure review into the operations of the Department of Culture and the Arts.
The State Library has refused to be drawn on whether it was considering changes to its opening hours.
It said its board's papers and discussions were "confidential".
Treasurer Mike Nahan said the review meant the department had been told it needed to cut a further 1.5 per cent from its budget, over and above the other efficiencies the Government had already demanded of it.
He said no final decisions on any cuts had been made and Cabinet was yet to sign off on anything.
"Right now, there's no change, there's no decision," he said.
"There's a whole range of things being debated at the, I assume at the department level, I'm not privy to it, we haven't signed off on it and the review's not finished so it's very premature to say what the outcomes will be."
He added that the Government had exempted frontline services from the cuts and libraries were frontline, but he still refused to speculate on any change to opening hours.
Any final decisions are likely to be revealed when the budget gets handed down in May.
