The downgrading of Tauranga City libraries is on hold while city councillors await the result of a review which is due to be completed by the end of this month.

Councillors have agreed to the mayor's suggestion that cash for book buying be increased from the planned $728,000 a year in the long term plan, to $1 million just for 2015/16 only.

An artist's impression of the new Greerton Library, which is due to open during the next financial year. Photo: Supplied.

The plan to reduce the book buying budget to $798,000 per annum for ten years will cut book numbers in the city libraries by more than a third, over a period when the city's population is expected to grow by almost 15 per cent.

'If it continues to fall we won't be able to stock the Greerton Library with the books that we had promised the customers,” says city libraries manager Jill Best.

However, Stuart insists it is a false economy to drive the book stock into the ground, and if numbers drop too far, council will be forced to pay more to bring stocks back up to a realistic level in the future.

Book numbers in city libraries are already at a lower level than any comparable New Zealand city. The intention of the council was to reduce the ratio of books per person to 1.7 from 2.6. The New Zealand average is 3.4.

Total issues of books for the last 12 months were 1,723,300, states the received report. With the opening of the new Greerton Library, total issues for the city are projected to rise by around 10 per cent.

In consultation with the Greerton community over the new library opening in 2016, the report states expectations were raised over a significant increase to the print collection in order to service the rapidly-increasing population in Tauranga South.

If the total library stock level is reduced by another 21,000 in 2015/16, then Greerton Library will receive only a limited amount of extra books which will be transferred from other branches.

It may result in community disappointment and lower levels of use of the new facility.

The Mayor's motion to pay $1 million this year and discuss longer-term plans when the library review of service is available later this month has re-opened the e book/paper book debate among councillors.

But available data doesn't support the argument that people will be dropping books in favour of electronic versions.

The use of e-books and e-audio from Tauranga Libraries is rising, but at a slow rate.

Tauranga Libraries currently have 5462 e-stock, which is 1.82 per cent of total stock. Issues of e-stock are expected to rise approximately in line with the increase in stock, when the collection meets the needs of more users.

The reduction to $798,000, however, will require Tauranga residents to move to 50 per cent e-lending within 10 years.

'This is a highly aspirational target not yet achieved in any other library worldwide that we are aware of,” says Jill.

The US e-book market, which is obviously a much bigger market than New Zealand, has levelled off at 25-30 per cent, says Jill.

'We don't know whether that will take off again,” she adds.

If Tauranga users don't take to e-stock in the required numbers, the libraries will be forced to buy more traditional books to maintain levels of service.

As recently as 2013, some 26 per cent of households in Tauranga were without internet access.

In addition, the pace of the move to e-stock will be limited by two factors; a lack of copyright clearance, which reduces e-stock able to be sold in NZ, and a number of large publishers that will not sell e-stock to libraries.

The library review began in February. The objectives are to review of the current library service in terms of the efficiency of the operation, assess the scope of the activity and decide its fitness for the future.

The Review is expected to be completed by the end of this month.