The three-person review team, employed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council to cut costs and improve efficiency, includes Shirley Flaherty.
Protest organiser Nicola Martinovich said yesterday she understood the library review was done by Ms Flaherty, who had no background in library services.
''The community in general are going to be alarmed someone has come in from a corporate background, an accounting background, to review a service that is provided by a set number of skilled individuals.''
Council chief executive Adam Feeley provided the Otago Daily Times with a summary of Ms Flaherty's background yesterday, which included no mention of libraries.
Mr Feeley said Ms Flaherty had ''extensive experience'' providing a broad range of business advice to corporate and public sector clients.
She had also held senior management roles in finance and general management in government and a state-owned enterprise.
''Her particular area of focus has been on assisting entities improve their performance through organisational re-design ... and this has included major organisational reviews for government departments including the Ministry of Economic Development.''
Ms Flaherty has a bachelor's degree in commerce and administration from Victoria University, and is a chartered accountant.
Another protest organiser, Sue Coutts, said Ms Flaherty's qualifications looked good on paper but she questioned her level of ''frontline'' or library-specific experience and suggested she had a ''blind spot'' over customer service.
''The foundation of good business practice is satisfying your customers. The `improvements' the reviewers have put on the table seem to be alienating ratepayers and disappointing the library users.''
Ms Martinovich said the main issue was that the public could not expect the same level of library service without the librarians.
''If they reduce the staff by half and increase their workload by at least double, what's going to happen to the service in the library? That's our concern.''
Mr Feeley is expected to make a final decision on the restructuring at the end of the month.
