Agenda item - Written questions from members of the public.

A list of public questions received by the due date of 12noon on the 22^nd March, 2019 will be circulated separately as part of an addendum at the meeting.

87.1      The Mayor reported that one written question had been received from a member of the public and invited Mr. Hawtree to come forward and address the council.

87.2      Mr. Hawtree asked the following question; “Would Councillor Daniel please tell us the current state of the earlier decision to stock our libraries with every classic work?”

87.3      Councillor Daniel replied; “A few years ago the library service carried out a project to fill gaps in the stock of classic literature and purchase replacement copies where needed. Libraries continue to fill gaps where they are identified and often appreciate the help we get from readers with this through their suggestions for purchase.”

87.4      Mr. Hawtree asked the following supplementary question; “This arose originally when Councillor Carol Theobald pointed out the lack of Charles Dickens in the Jubilee Library and so now all these years later in light of what you have just said and in preparing for this brief, perhaps salient, encounter did you think to ask what instructions have been given about this nature of classic books selection to the book selectors at Bertrams who carry out the bulk of this work how do they keep track of the books that we need?”

87.5      Councillor Daniel replied; “Yes I can give some explanation. It would be impossible for us to ever claim to stock every classic work for a number of reasons. One it is defining classic, what is a classic? and I think we could probably speak for some hours on that. Not all titles are in print, although libraries do attempt to get hold of some works which would be maybe considered classic we can’t always get hold of them and we balance the purchase throughout the council’s financial year between purchasing classics and also responding to new published literature to meet the tastes of a wide-ranging audience. So, as you know from previous questions/ exchanges that we have had both here and in committee the library service already retains the responsibility for books selection and carries out that role in a number of ways. The technical thing is called purchasing profiles for obvious book buying such as, again, the latest publications and so forth and also the library staff themselves select some more specialist and not forgetting that we want locally focused stock in our libraries as well. They retain that control and what we welcome is any public feedback if there is a work that they are looking for and can’t find to let us know, that is the best thing that anyone can do.”

87.6      The Mayor thanked Mr. Hawtree for attending the meeting and putting his questions and noted that concluded the item.