It’s great to see librarians come out fighting against a plan by Tauranga City Council to put a 50c per book charge on fiction. We’ve heard a lot of complaints in recent days about New Zealand’s shonky infrastructure, with electricity and telephone system failures. But the Tauranga proposal hits at another kind of infrastructure, a more fragile one – our collective intellectual capital. At a time when there is widespread concern about literacy rates and the impact of text-speak on the ability of younger New Zealanders to write well, the idea of putting a levy on reading is just plain bizarre. Not to mention putting New Zealand out of step with the rest of the western world, which recognises libraries as one of the foundations of the educational, information and cultural systems.

Free public libraries are a great public good in New Zealand and we have a proud tradition of excellent public library services. Far from being a “burden on the ratepayer”, they are probably one of the most valued local public services and the most widely-used.

And librarians are not afraid to stand up in defence of these bedrock values. The PSA – which represents most librarians – will be standing with them.