Public libraries | Audit report slams book acquisition management

In a report released yesterday, the Commission of Audit (CA) slammed the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) for its management of the acquisition of books and publications for public libraries. The CA said that “the IC shows a lack of professionalism in the way it conducts the works related with the conservation and management of the book collection.”

During inspections between March and December of 2017, it was found that there were around 100,000 items registered that weren’t filed or made available to library users.  According to the CA, most of the documents had been like that for over five years and there were some cases of items being left in boxes for 17 years.

“These 100,000 documents would be enough to create a new library of a considerable scale. The number of unprocessed documents and the time they’ve remained in that situation is huge. If this institution [the IC] continues to spend millions acquiring new books without any criteria, the time to process the newly-acquired books and the ones that are currently unprocessed will become longer,” the report notes.

Among the problems found during the CA probe was a storage place for books that was being affected by water damage in the walls. IC staff noted that the books could have been damaged by this, but nothing was done to fix the issue for months.

Photo evidence included in the report shows another storage area with piles of books covered with dust and many boxes full of books that “should be placed in drawers and not piled on the floor.”

In terms of the process for buying new books, the CA noted that it took eight and a half years for the IC to establish and approve a policy for the development of the book collection. However, until the conclusion of the CA probe, the IC was unable to share the guidelines that were “formally approved.”

The CA report notes that there are eight staff members responsible for selecting new books to be bought. According to the report, these workers “don’t follow the same criteria and there isn’t uniformity in the process of selecting books.”

Alleged problems with the computer system made it impossible to collect data about the book collection (such as the type of books and their language). As such, the Audit report concluded that the IC is not aware of the features of the book collection and can’t enforce any concrete guidelines in the acquisition of new books.

The report also notes that the government has been creating new libraries in order to promote healthy reading habits. Success in reaching those targets, it notes, “requires a capable management team, who are responsible and honest.”

In response to the report, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture demanded a follow up from IC management listing measures to improve procedures related to book acquisition.