Staff at British Library plan mass walk-out

The British Library faces a staff revolt as librarians and workers prepare for strike action and speak out about "major management problems".

Insiders say morale at the £511million St Pancras building is at an all-time low and claim management, under chief executive Lynne Brindley, sits on the library's £90million government funding and then rushes to spend it before the financial year ends.

"The lunatics have taken over the asylum," said one employee. "I see waste every day."

It is believed a recent update to the cataloguing system discovered 10,000 items were missing from the shelves.

Security guards have been asked to man the cloakrooms; workers have been asked to take on colleagues' duties to reduce overtime; reading room assistants are asked to do photocopying; and previously agreed overtime rights for staff are being reviewed.

There are also complaints that directors enjoy first-class rail travel while staff do not.

One employee said: "The science, business and technology reading rooms are empty a lot of the time. They reopened them as Services To Business - and they now have fewer users than before.

"They have also started charging for services, which is alienating users even more. One once-regular user says it is now cheaper to fly to Holland and use the Dutch Royal Library for his researches."

The library has now launched what one employee describes as a "major witch-hunt" to track down the staff members who presented a catalogue of complaints to the Evening Standard.

Interim finance director Robert Kirton is also understood to be planning a major review, which will include redundancies.

Meanwhile, PCS trade union negotiating officer Janet Keene said staff could walk out in droves in the civil service mass action planned in November. "The staff are annoyed, to put it mildly," she said. "I don't think it will take them much to come out on 5 November. They are aware of the cuts, although they are happening piecemeal."

Ms Brindley said in a statement: "The British Library has undertaken a programme of reform and modernisation to ensure it is relevant for 21st-century users. Like the rest of the public sector, the British Library has been required to cut costs and make efficiency savings while providing ever more relevant services."