One of the hats I wear is a committee member of Friends of the Tauranga City libraries Inc.

I have learned, with great disappointment, that proposed savage cuts to the library books are likely to go ahead.

This week council will have made final decisions about the Long Term Plan. One of the decisions they will have made is whether to continue with cutting 20,000 books out of the libraries every year for the next 10 years.

In exchange the library will get a few more e-books.

At the end of 10 years Tauranga Libraries will have so few real books we will all be rationed to one or two books per library card.

Does this sound like an Age-Friendly City with an expanding population? Where will parents get bedtime stories? Where will children get enjoyable books to practise reading?

Do the councillors think everyone will move to e-books to save them money? Some people can't afford e-readers. That's why they borrow free books from the library.

The council thinks the library can mainly supply e-books!

Even students are moving back to real books because reading on a screen for long periods is uncomfortable. There is also evidence now that watching a screen before going to bed inhibits sleep.

Screens are fine for short stuff but for in-depth reading and thinking, or a good yarn, real books are much better.

I use both for different purposes, but I want to have a choice about it.

Apart from all of the above, the worldwide uptake of e-books is not at the speed the council expects us to accept, and who can honestly forecast what the technology will be in the next five to 10 years.

I certainly cannot and I've been heavily involved in IT since I started as a computer programmer in 1967. I say: Keep real books!

T Hawker, Papamoa.


Editor's note: Last week TCC changed its mind on reducing the amount of money spent on library books, and lifted the amount from $758,000 a year
to $1 million a year during the next 10 years.