A DECISION to stop stamping return dates on library items has met with an angry response from some users, a library boss has admitted.

There has been a "mixed" reaction to the change said councillor Margaret Dewar, responsible for libraries at Buckinghamshire County Council.

Library users are now given a receipt with all items they have borrowed and their return dates - but many complain that the forms are easy to lose.

Yet Cllr Dewar said people can look on the internet or speak to their library to find out when their book is due back and "allowances" will be made as the "system beds in".

And she denied suggestions the move was a waste of paper and said it would save librarians' time.

She said: "Reaction to the new system has been mixed.

"Some customers are delighted with it, most particularly mums with children, as they have details of all their families' loans together, rather than having to hunt for the books in bedrooms and behind sofas.

"The majority of library users appreciate an overall quicker, smoother process."

She added: "Each action of opening a book and stamping it then closing it again takes around five seconds, when you multiply that by the 3.6 million items we loan each year, you have 5,000 hours of staff time, plus the time spent inking stamps, changing dates, etc."

Accusations that the system was a "waste of paper" were not true, she said.

"Although we are issuing receipt slips this is balanced by reductions in paper consumption elsewhere, including date labels, request cards (a high percentage of requests now being made on line), and other in-house stationery that customers will not normally encounter."

She pledged that library staff will "make allowances as the system beds in and customers get used to it".

But she said in the "long term the onus is on the customers not to lose their receipts".

She said: "I am confident that, together with the many other new features of the system, it will improve the service to our customers."