to think that we NEED libraries? This is horrific.

[StuckInTheMiddleWithYou]

Would MN like to run a campaign on this?

www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-hands-off-our-public-libraries-2057131.html

Libraries are vital, for communities especially. But, lets be honest, most kids nowadays are going to use E-Books. Depressing. But that is 'progress' for you.
See Friday night's Newsnight Review. Sad but true, I'm afraid.

Not sure what else I can write that hasn't already been said - what, practically can we do?

Help me understand the ebook argument.

Ebooks cost money and so do the ebook readers. So why are library-users all going to desert libraries for ebooks? Doesn't make sense. And I'd've thought - if libraries are properly funded of course - that libraries would be among the first organisations that woud rent out ebooks and readers.

Huge cuts of 25% across the board do not have to be made, nomore. This government is choosing to make them and is choosing to strip back public services so severely.

" they can't cut schools much"

oh yes they can, sandripples. And they are.

It is not the case that we have to let libraries go in order to save mor eimportant things.

Teachers have already been made redundant, class sizes have already been increased, TA posts have already been cut. The same is happening to all public services, the 'important' ones as well as those people consider not so important.

Wake up, people.

I don't understand your point, pointydog

Which one?

I bash out things too quickly on mn. I read posts by nomorerain and sandripples and I was replying to them as well as commenting on why ebooks should not make libraries redundant.

Which teachers and teaching assistants have been made redundant? I've heard nothing in my area

or class sizes increasing, where is this happening?

this bit: 'Teachers have already been made redundant, class sizes have already been increased, TA posts have already been cut. The same is happening to all public services, the 'important' ones as well as those people consider not so important.

Wake up, people.'

I think you are saying that public sector cuts in one area doesn't preclude cuts in another public sector?

Yes. Sandripples said it was a shame libraries were being cut but maybe we would just have to accept them so that more important aREAS like education were not cut. (I'm paraphrasing.)

I am saying that is not the case. I am saying that the big important stuff is also being cut as well as 'less important' areas. It is not a case of either/or, it is everything.

So anyone who feels cuts to libraries is a bad thing should complain loudly and get into the swing of complaining loudly as the months go by.

It depends on the local authority, compo. I am in Scotland. Sone authorities are not targetting education. Mine is, big time. We have lost teachers, children are in bigger classes and there's more to come.

"I want to see 25% of all public sector jobs in the top grades cut and 25% straight off the salaries and pensions over £50k in the public sector and as well. Then 10% off all other spending by stopping waste."

Great idea! Get all the inexperienced, low quality people to run the massive Gov departments with huge budgets because all those on top salaries would quickly move to greener pastures ie the private sector where they'd be more handsomely rewarded. The civil service really struggles to recruit the best people because they simply can't pay enough to compete with the private sector.
Still, I'm sure no one will mind if poorly qualified people waste public money, as long as the poor sods are doing their best and they're not getting paid much, that's the main thing, isn't it.

Thanks for clarifying

Seems to me that the ConDems are testing the waters, so to speak and trying to gauge public opinion. They haven't actually announced that public libraries are going to close en masse. They are merely conducting a pilot scheme in a supermarket and no doubt will say this is to give value for money, make them more accessible blah blah blah.

Libraries are a big deal and important. I get the idea that some people view them as glorified reading rooms and that information can be retrieved just as easily online. DD is starting to read and loves that she had her very own library card that allows her to take out books. She calls it her 'credit card.'

my granny would love an `e-book' but in all honesty she cant turn the mobile phone we got her on (Nokia 3330 so its ancient) let alone turn a e book on but she can turn the page of a good block buster (and then moan about the amount of sex in modern day novels!)

Our local library is always busy and does regular story times for children that would be really missed in our village as well as courses such as computer courses for `silver surfers' i hope the local community would fight any closures

I agree with BabyDubs - public libraries are important for communities, but with cheap second hand books around and most people having internet at home, they're having real problems getting people in through the doors, so something needs to change.

I don't know why government thinks private bodies will be willing to step in and run them though. And Big Society is just an excuse to cut public services with the hope that "communities" will pick up the pieces.

I have written to my MP. The libraries here are fantastic and would be terrible to seem them go. Libraries are wonderful places.

I just am sickened by what the Condems want to turn this country into. The damage they are doing will take decades to undo.

The article says

"if the Government allows it to slip into decline in the hollow name of community, Ed Vaizey's promises and his boss's Big Society will be exposed as a heartless sham."

Hit the nail on the head there. The Big Society is of course a heartless sham. This is all just so depressing.

It's yet another depressingly age-old tory policy with a modern spin.

They've only been in 5 minutes and they're doing this already. What will it be like in 5 years or 10 or more?

StuckInTheMiddleWithYou "So what can we do about this? I really have no idea"

Start campaigning, now, to get the Tories out, perhaps? It will be easier to reverse some of the damage if they only get one term, much harder after two (or three).

I agree with the OP. Email MPs and start petitions in your own areas.

Sadly so many libraries are fast becoming internet cafes with a few books shoved in for show.

I love going to the BM and British Library because they are still libraries as I understand the word.

The last words of the article are so true, "A country's public library service is a sure indicator of how highly it values its citizens, its children and its future."

Pointydog - that's really depressing
personally I'm more concerned by that ie bigger class sizes , no ta's for sen children than a library being in tesco

Totally depressing :(

We go every week - our library doubles up as a Surestart Centre so there's additional activities put on for the dcs.

We don't havethe money for libraries in our current disastrous financial situation.

Hmmm I am in the Czech Republic. The country is not rolling in it. Are they considering closing down libraries? Let's take the poorest countries in Europe - that'l be ex-Soviet dominated countries so perhaps Albania - I have no idea abut the situation there, probably horrendous. Or White Russia. I am trying to imagine White Russians closing down their libraries, dumbing down their curriculum, making their school qualification exams easier to pass.

No way, Jose.

However we are determined to lower the educational standards and interests of the populace in order to fall behind the rest of the world, then let's get on with it. It's all very far-sighted

I have been in touch with my local councillor and think it may be a local issue. The libraries are run by city/town council, so the decision would be taken there.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the most effective way to make one's voice known would be at local level.

Ilovemydogand mrobama is right - its very much a local issue as libraries are managed by local authorities. So I'd suggest those who wish to campaign contact their their local councillors but also to their local MP.

Yes I realise some cuts are being made to all services. Its a ghastly scenario for public services.

I can afford books (only off Amazon), because I don't buy anything else, but I do go to the library at least once a fortnight.
I agree that a library is not just about books. Old people go there to read the newsbpaper; teenagers with dysfuntional families have got somewhere quiet to study for exams; people who can't afford books.

Books do smell of adventures, whomovedmy, and it's reassuring to know there's a building with loads of adventures in it.

Depressing