However, Mr Hide has already fired the first shot in any coming battle - accusing Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin of "scaremongering" by raising the prospect of privatisation during last week's library centenary celebrations in Dunedin.
Mr Chin told a gathering of library staff and supporters celebrating the centenary that recent comments by Mr Hide, urging councils to "stick to the basics" to rein in rates, could threaten the library's future.
Contacted by the Otago Daily Times after his speech, Mr Chin reiterated his belief that Mr Hide's comments "potentially puts the library under threat", and that the minister would be in for a fight if he moved towards privatisation.
"If it was under threat I [have] no doubt at all the community would be rising up in arms," Mr Chin said.
His concerns were mirrored by library staff spoken to by the ODT and members the Dunedin Public Libraries Association, who feared what such a move would mean for the library's collection of rare books.
"Would he want to flog them off?" association president Merle van de Klundert asked.
"The library resources would just die away. It's too horrendous to even think about."
However, Mr Hide attacked his critics when contacted on Tuesday, saying he had no plans - nor the legal "mechanism" - to privatise libraries, which were the responsibility of local authorities.
"I take a very dim view of anyone, particularly mayors, that would try and scaremonger in this way. The word library has never come out of my lips. I think Mayor Chin is being disingenuous," Mr Hide said.
Instead, Mr Hide said he aimed to be a "cheerleader" encouraging local authorities to think carefully about expenditure - particularly, in Dunedin's case, when it came to using ratepayer funds for stadium projects.
"It would be a bit of a dim city that didn't have libraries. There's a big difference between spending millions on a stadium and managing a good library," he said.
The row comes after Mr Hide threw his support behind a recent Local Government Forum report, published last month, which argued local authorities had strayed from core business into other areas "that could easily be provided by the private sector".
He said the Government was determined to ease the burden on households and businesses, and "I will be looking at ways of achieving this goal".
The forum's members include the Business Roundtable, Business New Zealand, the Electricity Networks Association, Federated Farmers, New Zealand Chambers of Commerce and the Retailers Association.
