Action will be taken to address staffing issues in city libraries after there were 66 full or part day closures last year.
Glasgow’s Green group released the information which revealed some neighbourhoods were disproportionately affected, with 43 of the closures in the north and east of the city.
Cllr Jon Molyneux, the group’s co-leader, said the scale of the problem risked “undermining local library services by stealth”.
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In response to his concerns, Bailie Annette Christie, convener for culture, sport and international relations and the chair of Glasgow Life, which runs libraries, said three recruitment drives had been carried out last year.
She added another drive is under way now and committed to work on a resilience plan.
There were 47 full-day and 19 part-day closures of libraries in 2022/23, usually on Saturdays. Of the full-day closures, six were at Barmulloch, five at Springburn and four each at Royston, Possilpark and Castlemilk.
During a discussion at a city administration committee on a “refreshed” vision for Glasgow’s libraries on Thursday, Bailie Christie said the five-year strategy focused on five key themes: culture, health and well-being, social, economy and environment.
Cllr Molyneux said: “The fundamental factor in being able to deliver against all of those five themes is libraries being open and available to people when they expect them and when they want and need them to be.”
Bailie Christie said libraries are “back to pre-pandemic opening hours” but there “have been some concerns with staff”. “Like most public sector organisations, and indeed the private sector, there have been changes in the workforce, a lot of staff have left the business.
“During the last year, there have been three recruitment drives. During those recruitment drives, 78 new employees have come on board. There’s also a recruitment drive on at the moment because we are not fully at the capacity we would like to be.”
She added: “With regard to any library closures, you will appreciate that some of the libraries are very small. They may only have two or three staff, so if one individual calls in sick that can be a major concern.”
New staff take “a little time to bed in and become fully aware of the library operations”, Bailie Christie added, so “in the beginning they can’t move around quite as freely as some of the longer term staff”.
“Everything is done to ensure libraries can stay open to their full capacity. Any library that has had to close tends to be on a Saturday which is difficult for them to get library cover.
“Those staff that are being enrolled, there is a commitment for the majority of them to commit to working Saturdays so we can move them around. You can appreciate if people are ill, we would not want to force them to come into work.”
Cllr Molyneux said: “The concern is that if at a future point there is a wider review of the library estate, and we are looking at attendance figures, the attendance at libraries is likely to be undermined if people don’t have certainty about when they are going to be able to access services.”
Bailie Patricia Ferguson, Labour, supported Cllr Molyneux’s call for work to be done on making the library service more reliant.
“We don’t know what the future holds for us, and we would want to make sure that the libraries that are so vital to our communities were able to provide the kind of service that people need,” she said.
After the meeting, Cllr Molyneux said: “Having previously secured the funding which reopened all the city’s libraries following Covid, Greens are committed to protecting and enhancing local library services.
“We therefore welcome the commitment given today to develop a resilience plan for libraries which will be a relief to those communities which have borne the brunt of these closures.”
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