Cr Hayes, who is also CHLRC board chairman, said he was disappointed and concerned by the news Ballarat council had given 12 months notice for its withdrawal from the CHRLC.

The corporation's headquarters are located at Ballarat in a building owned by Ballarat City Council.

With Ballarat set to withdraw, a question mark hangs over the future of library services for all remaining councils.

The library corporation undertook a review last year and came up with three different options for future direction.

"Number one was to stay as is. None of the seven council members were in favour of that," Cr Hayes said.

"Two was to have a situation where councils would employ library branch staff directly.

"Three was that library services be managed by one council and the other councils buy into the library services.

"All councils except Ballarat gave support for that second option."

Cr Hayes said Ballarat, having found itself in disagreement with the majority decision, had made a mockery of its claims of promoting regional partnerships.

"I'm convinced Ballarat wants to run the service and have other councils buy in," Cr Hayes said.

"None of the six councils want to go down that path.

"Ballarat always speaks about fostering regional partnerships. They're just making the decision and asking us to fall in line."

Cr Hayes said the board would meet today to discuss its options.

But he said, to a large extent, the choice had already been taken out of its hands.

"We're at the whim of Big Brother Ballarat," he said. "At least with option two we were masters of our own destiny.

"If one council is going to run the corporation, we don't have any say in the quality of service."

Cr Hayes said the news of Ballarat's withdrawal had come as a complete surprise, with no prior consultation with the other councils.