File ref: IRC-5044
17 July 2023
David Farrar
[FYI request #23155 email]
Kia ora David
Thank you for your request made under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings
Act 1987 (the Act), received on 16 June 2023. You requested the below information:
• Number of books borrowed.
• Average time in days a book is out for, before it is returned.
• What proportion of borrowed books were out for greater than 21 days.
• What proportion of borrowed books were out for greater than 42 days.
Wellington City Council has partly
granted your request for information.
Number of books borrowed:
Financial year
Total items borrowed
1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021
2,739,526
1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022
2,609,590
1 July 2022 – 31 May 2023
2,467,181
Book returns:
The Council has a wide range of loan periods and borrower categories across our collections, as well
as item renewals and other services. With over 2.5 million items borrowed per year, the analysis
required to give a proportion of items returned within a certain time-period would be very difficult
and time-consuming, as our library systems are not set up to easily retrieve this type of comparison
information. This wil divert staff resources away from business-as-usual work. This part of your
request has been refused under section 17(f) of the Act that the information requested cannot be
made available without substantial col ation or research.
The Council can provide you with two snapshots of al items that were borrowed on a particular day
in that month as part of our 6-month review of fines free.
Returned: Before
On due
Item
1-7 days 8-14
15-21
22-30
Not
due
date:
renewed: overdue days
days
days
returned
date:
overdue overdue
overdue
Mar 2022
55%
16%
18%
8.5%
1.4%
.3%
.3%
.3%
Nov 2022
53.2%
5.8%
22%
15.6%
1.4%
.7%
.9%
.4%
Right of review
If you are not satisfied with the Council’s response, you may request the Office of the Ombudsman
to investigate the Council’s decision. Further information is available on the Ombudsman website,
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Please note, we may proactively release our response to your request with your personal
information removed.
Thank you again for your request, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Kind regards
Asha Harry
Official Information
Wellington City Council | 2 of 2