New plan receives councillors backing after learning of staffing issues.

A report before Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Communities and Housing Committee this week, said that staffing of the service had become “progressively more challenging” in recent years and that the staffing situation was now “insufficient for the service to function effectively without additional resources”.

The report concluded that ‘reimagining’ future service delivery was now “an imperative” and that discussions on the new approach “…must progress at pace in order to provide a cohesive and sustainable future plan for the service, to ensure it continues to meet its statutory obligations and to deliver the required level of savings”.

Particular concerns were raised about the lack of staff in the provision of support for library services for young people and the current staffing situation in Castlebay.

Comhairle officers said that delays in implementing changes to the service which had been agreed in previous years, and which could have enabled recruitment to the service to be made, had occurred due to the Comhairle’s on-going and subsequent service redesign process.

The report before members also highlighted for praise the work done by the library service during the pandemic lock-down, and noted that the mobile library service was now operational again.

Barra, Eriskay and South Uist councillor, Calum MacMillan said that the staffing situation in Castlebay was of particular concern “as that is the area of the islands that is most removed from Stornoway”, and called for the same provision of services to be available in the islands “as they are in Stornoway itself”.

Cllr MacMillan also called for the library service to be given a prominent ‘front-window’ position in the planned Barra and Vatersay Community Campus and for the service “to be a feature of the building itself”.

Stornoway South Councillor Charlie Nicolson said that he was “shocked” to hear of the lack of staff resource in the service for young people and indicated his support for the move to a new plan.An interim report on the future of the service is now due before councillors at the next meeting of the committee in March.

The report before councillors confirmed that during the lockdown period, the Comhairle’s Library and Information Service moved online to deliver services digitally including regular storytime sessions, author talks, LEGO and coding challenges, reading groups, and continued to provide access to family history resources along with eBook and eAudio book provision for island residents.

The report stated that Stornoway Library reopened to the public at the beginning September 2020 following strict safety guidelines, with a Connect and Collect service. Liniclate and Tarbert libraries reopened several weeks later, with Castlebay Library,opening on November 9.

While all library branches are on reduced hours, the public response, the report stated, has been "extremely positive" with over 5,000 items being borrowed while they’ ve been operating.