Teachers clash with Sydney University over library cuts

By Elliott Brennan

Sydney University library staff have been told they will be made redundant by the new system that will focus on a digital platform as well as the extension of opening hours.

The planned cuts will affect 156 staff in total.

Prominent authors showed solidarity with the the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) when they held a rally outside the University of Sydney’s Fisher Library on Wednesday (August 13) to protest against proposed changes to the delivery of Library services on campus.

The rally attracted a crowd of over 200 and circulated a petition with over 1000 signatures.

“For a number of years now the University Management has been talking about changing what happens in the library. They are planning a library which will have hardly any staff and hardly any books,” said Sydney Branch President of the NTEU Michael Thompson.

“The University of Sydney seem to think that a library is where students can go and talk to each other at all hours of the day, without any people there to provide information about what the library can support.”

David Malouf, an Australian Author and winner of Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, was the key speaker at the event and addressed the fundamental changes the decision alludes to.

“Librarians belong to an old and honourable profession, these changes will make them redundant,” Mr Malouf said.

“It’s the scope as well as nature of reading that’s being changed here.”

“We ought not harm what is to be discovered in the future by destroying what is in print now.”

The NTEU believes that the change will lead to the loss of physical books that were previously available in the larger Fisher and SciTech libraries.

The University of Sydney has defended the proposals, indicating that they are simply keeping up with the modern standard for libraries.

“Overwhelmingly, most University libraries’ information and services are delivered electronically. Over 1.4 million books were issued or renewed at our libraries in 2012, but users downloaded nearly three million e-readings and more than eight million journal articles,” a spokesperson for the University said.

They also rejected claims that the workforce was being downsized.

“There are more positions in the new library structure than there are currently library staff. Library staff whose current positions are made redundant will be able to apply for vacant positions in the new structure,” the spokesperson said.

Michael Thompson dismisses these claims saying that although the current staff are being given the opportunity, it is highly unlikely they will be successful in their applications.

“Many of the people who are being made redundant are towards the end of their working career, many of them have English as a second language, and through no fault of their own most of them simply do not have the skill sets required to work in this new system,” Mr Thompson said.

The disagreement over the library operations is just the latest in ongoing tensions between the University of Sydney and the NTEU. A series of strikes over pay conditions froze university operations on several occasions last year.