The public submission hearings for the Tauranga City Council's annual plan, where the issue of introducing library book charges is dominating, is into its third day.
The issue has galvanised the public protest, with many submitters reminding councillors that this is an election year and how they vote on the library issue will decide whether people vote for them.

See video below of Simone Anderson comparing the council to the human heart and the library to the brain.

"It's a familiar message over the last day and a bit," says Mayor Stuart Crosby to Jane Fawcett.
Jane says the move to raise library charges and downgrade library services contradicts the city council's own mission statement that it will, "Enhance the quality of life for current and future residents."
Artist Simone Anderson took a metaphorical approach. Using a life-sized picture of the human body, Simone says the library is the brain of the community and the council is the heart.
She says the heart can be bypassed, the body can suffer the loss of an arm and a leg, but there is no survival without a brain.

In the Western Bay of Plenty District Council submission on the annual plan, Mayor Ross Paterson said his council will review its contribution to the city libraries if the service is reduced.
Kate Clark analysed the Tauranga libraries performance indicators and says Tauranga City Council does not fully appreciate the asset that has been built up, and that promoting library membership is a far better option than adding user charges or cutting budgets or staff numbers.
Tauranga libraries are already performing better on less ratepayer money than libraries in similar sized cities; Dunedin, Hamilton, Lower Hutt, and Tauranga.