Hundreds of thousands of books in Hong Kong thrown away as libraries slammed for ‘wasteful practice’
Leisure and Cultural Services Department told to justify spending about HK$100 million to meet its annual procurement target of “at least 700,000” items
Libraries in Hong Kong are spending more public money on books, but hundreds of thousands of them are ending up on the scrapheap every year, a government watchdog has found.
This was among 10 inadequacies highlighted in an investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman on Tuesday. The watchdog slammed the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), which runs the public libraries system, for being unable to justify its annual procurement target of “at least 700,000” items.
It also urged the department to review its “wasteful practice” of throwing items taken off shelves into the rubbish rather than donating them to charities or holding book sales.
The department spends about HK$100 million to meet its target, which it claims is based on standard items per capita and procurement guidelines by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
“The LCSD has been unable to explain clearly the rationale of this 700,000 target. In fact, it has acquired more [than 700,000] items annually over the past eight years with the highest being 24 per cent [more],” said Ombudsman Connie Lau Yin-hing.
