to think that closing all our local libraries and expecting volunteers to take over and fund them is a rubbish 'big idea'??

[snail1973]

Bucks CC are proposing (well it is out for consultation but we all know what that means - it's a done deal) to close 14 libraries (out of 21). They are asking the local communities if they want to take them over.

I am really cross about this. Libraries are so vital for families with young children and the elderly. Just handing them over to the community and saying "there you go, you find the money and the volunteers to run them" is doomed to failure and so yet again the kids and the old will loose vital services.

And don't even get me started on SureStart (also gone in our area).

Are libraries being closed elsewhere in the country too?

Littleducks. I have done the survey. Except it's not really a survey. The questions are SO squewed to get the answers they want that it is worthless as any sort of actual communication tool.

I will def be at our local meeting and am rallying support.

But any tips on things we can say that would actually stop these plans would bs gratefully received.

if this is going to work, i forsee that there will be an overarching support structure in place - perhaps a managing structure for the library service to cover the county, and a community support service. the libraries will be run by volunteers, i am assuming then the libraries will become something like community centres, they will get tax breaks and be able to access monies that local councils cannot.

they will be able to look at how they can make the cost of the building sustainable through renting out facilities for functions, parties, presentations, meetings, toddler groups, community activities.

whilst i personally do;t want to see the library service diminish, i also think that communitites could do a great job with the right support.

SEA, our local libraries over a service to download and read some books at home.

God I really don't want libraries run like community centres.

Librarians are highly qualified.

You might as well turn over schools and hospitals to community volunteers and expect them to do the job just as well.

i would have thought there were more jobs for qualified librarians with the internet and all

I work for Suffolk Libraries and I am being made redundant next year. We have a great library service in Suffolk and I can just see it all unravelling, so sad.

Is there any other indoor public space that is freely available to teenagers during the day in every town?

Our library is always full of secondary school children after school. Where else are they meant to go?

The volunteer thing will work for a year or so, while they can use all of the systems that have been put in place by the Librarians, then as the systems fail to be updated, the whole thing will start to collapse.

well i'm presuming that the libraries won't be closed - as they are being run by volunteers, so the teenagers will still be able to go to the library won't they?

i think schools and teh nhs are slightly different to librarians

there is no money and the cc don't want to pay the library staff - and I say library staff as there are not any librarians left - next it will be the museums and then the archives - there will not be anything left

Tis about time that the goverment allowed coucils to set their own discounts for second homes and empty properties, they cap the coucnil tax but will not allow the local goverment to make their own rules

Half of all the libraries where I work will go out to community as they call it.
Desperately sad as they'll never get those branches back.
I can't talk about it to be honest; the lib dems really screwed us over

Fill in lots of forms saying that all the libraries should be made 'county' libraries

The libraries have people counters on the doors (you may hear a small beep as you walk in) walk in and out a couple of extra times

Check out books, on your ticket, your kids tickets, issues are a major part the monthly stats that get reviewed

But i didnt say this

Custardo, no, in some areas libraries are closing.

Where I live the plan is to charge people to borrow books. I would prefer that to volunteers or closures.

for soem people the library is the only place they can go to use the internet - they get help with how to use it from the staff. So many people are disadvantaged as it is die to not having this typwe of help and use the internet.

OAP use libraries to collect books and have soemwhere warm to sit.

The libraries get over 12000 email enquireis in one year - where will all those people email for an answer to their question from who to contact in the coincil for this or that to how to get a gp ina new area

you may not want your council tax used to pay for libraries - but it is one large part of the council that is public facing and not hidden away, they are similar to a gate way to the rest of the council for a lot of people
due to the fact that 1000's of people in the councties use the library not for books but for information of others sorts

you will regret it when they are gone

Our goveremtn doesn't think that education and literature should be available to the greater unwashed

by closing the libraries the goveremnt will help to creat a much greater divide between those with knowledge and those without

What little ducks said

They are similar in that they require trained professionals to be useful in their stated purpose.

If they're just going to be community centres run by volunteers, then juts call them that.

'tbh if people want it to stay that much they should be prepared to run it'

they are prepared to, if they are PAID to do it, you know, like a job

The library service wasn't even cut during WW2. It was recognised as being vital for social co-operation and a sense of citizenship, and was supported by the Government.

The current Government is just using our current financial situation to undermine social institutions that the British fought to have rights to.

In Wandsworth (lowest council tax in the country; £105 million slush fund in the bank) they have singled out a library in a council estate as the one library they want to close. The marginal saving will be about £70K a year.

I can only assume this is because they think the locals round this library won't make as much of a fuss as those near to other neighbourhood libraries near to middle class homes. It's a major shame. The library is used by local kids for homework and just as a quiet place to be at times, the small IT centre is used for people to do qualifications and search for jobs, there are baby rhyme times used by a range of people from the estate and other local areas. Council say it is more expensive to run than other libraries in the borough, which is true, but the social impact in this area is almost certainly much greater - although since the council have made no effort to measure social impact in making this decision they can't possibly know either way. Levels of illiteracy in the immediate area are high, and home computer ownership is about 20% lower than the borough average (according to the council's own figures).

So sad and it will have a massive social impact in an area which has quite a number of difficulties, but then why should the council care about people some of the most vulnerable people in the community?

So much for Big Society - it's a massive poke in the eye for ideas of social cohesion, protecting those who most need help etc.

oh yes library closures are a terrible idea

My MIL is a librarian in an area where the Council is threatening to sack library staff, and get volunteers to do their job for free. Because obviously their job is worthless and any bored pensioner can do it. In every area where this has been tried, it's ended up with libraries being open only on weekends and limited odd hours.

My local library is brilliant. Free internet access, books which can be ordered in from across the borough within a day or two, an excellent DVD section and local history archive, training in various things for all age ranges. Librarians who really really care about their job and mentor a lot of the young people who come in. I took a really obscure CD out recently - Throbbing Gristle's Greats hits - after seeing on a BBC documentary, and had a chat with the staff about it. When I returned it the following week, they'd saved me another band they thought I'd like. They just really really care about their jobs. This is in a busy library in inner London.

A couple of years ago my Lib Dem councillor opined in the press that local libraries were useless, and that the Council could just shut then down and send everyone in the borough a £10 book token every year.

The publishers of electronic books have just barred libraries from allowing borrowers to download books over the internet (even though it would only be for a short term loan) and are insisting that libraries make borrowers come into the library and download books there. This is clearly designed to ensure that this doesn't take off as a service.

Perhaps councils are expecting all their unemployed librarians to start volunteering to work in libraries

I think the only way forward is to charge for borrowing books.

10p a withdrawal isn't so drastic, is it?

"they are prepared to, if they are PAID to do it, you know, like a job"

:o

well said