Brought to book

Bournemouth has almost 29,000 fewer books for loan than in 1997, Poole 8,250 fewer and the rest of the county's libraries have seen almost 114,000 books go. Poole has also seen the number of books available for reference slashed in favour of online services. Its central library - which once had a whole floor devoted to its 45,000 reference volumes - now has just 2,125.

The figures, obtained by the Echo under the Freedom of Information Act, have come to light at a time when Poole considers axing the top floor of its central library altogether and reducing opening hours across the area.

Derek Henderson, chairman of the Friends of Colehill Library, said library chiefs had been "robbing the book fund" to keep libraries open.

"We're not happy about that, but I suppose if it's a question of keeping a library open or robbing the book fund, we'd like to keep the library open," he said.

The figures released to the Echo compare 2006-2007 with 1997-98, when Bournemouth and Poole took over the running of their local libraries from Dorset.

In Poole, the branches to see their stocks dwindle most included Canford Heath, which has lost 3,306 books; Canford Cliffs, which lost 1,771; and Broadstone, at 1,080. But the new Rossmore library has 2,400 more books than its predecessor.

In Bournemouth, the new Central Library has 5,439 more books for loan than its predecessor at the Lansdowne. But Boscombe has lost 12,975 books, Charminster 7,725, Southbourne 8,223, Winton 5,847 and Westbourne 5,665. The new Strouden Library, funded by the Castlepoint development, has 16,328 books more than the old one.

In Dorset, there are 14,334 books fewer for loan at Ferndown than in 1997; 8,634 fewer at Christchurch; 5,432 at Highcliffe; 6,117 at Wimborne; 3,443 at Verwood; 3,509 at West Moors; 2,440 at Swanage; and 2,433 at Colehill.

The councils stress the figures do not include DVDs, videos, CDs and online resources. A Dorset County Council statement said: "It is important to note that it is the quality and presentation of the book stock available for loan that is critical, rather than the quantity."

It stressed the county had received an "excellent" rating in a national "stock quality health check".

At the Borough of Poole, John Lane, library services manager for development, said: "We have deliberately sought to balance quality with quantity and this has resulted in an increased amount of display shelving in all our libraries.

"In Canford Heath and Canford Cliffs libraries, we have significantly added to space for the community to meet or study. This has required a reduction in shelf capacity."

He added: "The large drop in reference volumes held reflects the very different ways in which information is provided and accessed now. All libraries in Poole, not just the Central Library are now offer a range of specialist on-line resources which give access across the whole network."

The old reference library included some expensive services used by a tiny minority of residents, he said.

Carolyn Date, Bournemouth's services and strategy manager for libraries and arts, said there were technical reasons why the 1997 figures might not be reliable. She added that Charminster was then a group headquarters for the county and its official stock included books that were not in fact on its shelves.

She said there had been a drop in stocks after a round of budget-cutting in the 1990s. "I think some of the drop in our stock figures will be from that cut those years ago but the council's restored that," she said.

But she said the town centre's new library was a big improvement over its predecessor. "Bournemouth, for the first time ever since I've been a librarian, has a town library worthy of the name," she added.

Glenys Jenkins, a member of Bournemouth Literary Luncheon Club, said the drop in stocks was "a great shame" but added: "You would need to compare it with book sales now there are so many competitive prices around and the other issue is there are lots of books being recycled."