To think wanting to close almost all the libraries in a county is not acceptable?

[WhirlwindHugs]

www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/28/northamptonshire-may-close-up-to-28-of-its-36-libraries

The basic gist is Northamptonshire County Council is in a huge financial mess so it wants to close 21-28 out of 36 libraries. Including the children's centres that run from those buildings.

Obviously libraries did not cause NCC woes and closing them isn't going to save that much money.

AIBU to think NCC are utterly shortsighted?

Most grant makers will not give funding to replace council funding.

Splinterz, you say nobody uses the library.
I use it a lot. I go in almost weekly - it's really convenient and it's busy. There are lots of children there with piles of books.
I use the facilities there - internet, printing, copying, newspapers and so on.

The poor librarians!

Northamptonshire is a rural county and these small libraries are lifelines to the community. I don't think OP and I share the same library because ours doesn't run the foodbank, but the job club, the only internet access for those who don't have it at home, the homestart, the children's services, so so many community and local services run through our small library: the books are a really small part of what they do.
It is open on Sunday and does late evenings 4 nights a week. It is a fantastic community resource and is well used.
None of the options being debated by the council will save our library.
Rather like the debate about moving from 3 tier schools to 2-tier schools in East Northants, they have already decided that what the outcome will be.

Lancashire County Council closed a large number of libraries last year. The so-called "public consultation" was a sham as basically public comments etc were ignored. They claimed to encourage local community groups to take them over and run them as "community assets", but the Council officials wouldn't respond to letters, phone calls nor emails from local groups asking for information. One library in particular, the same council had spent nearly £300k renovating the year before, and it was then earmarked for closure less than a year later! The council was reported to the Communities Secretary who is on record as considering a formal enquiry into the actions of the County Council due to lack of transparency of reasoning/rationale in which libraries were closed and why.

Luckily, a change in the political leadership of the council following May's County Council elections has meant that the new council has been re-opening many of the closed libraries, and giving more support to a few that were taken over by local community groups. The one the previous Council spent £300k on the year before closure is being re-opened shortly.

Sadly, I think that politics are to play in a lot of closures. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that many of the closures were in areas which traditionally vote against the ruling party at the time of the closures?? It's not as if they saved much money - from what I can gather, many of the staff were simply redeployed in other libraries and the buildings were just mothballed so continued to need insurance, alarms, rates, maintenance, etc.

At a time when we're falling down international educational league tables, and when rural services are being run down (i.e. shop/post office closures, fewer buses etc), rural libraries are more essential than ever and the costs are tiny compared with the benefits.

It is great to hear inspiring stories of charities and local communities saving libraries but they shouldn't have to.

But, being run my local communities can make them better, more useful and more sustainable in the long term. Councils are notoriously bad at the "business" end of things - anything beyond ever increasing car park charges and they havn't a clue. In my village, I was loosely involved with a community group planning to take over our library, and some of the ideas for new services, fund raising, trading, etc., were truly inspiring, including local businesses, schools, GP surgery, playgroup, etc., all being interested in renting space inside the library on the days/evenings it was closed, the rents received of which would have covered the building running cost. Yet, the council won't even discuss renting it out - whenever they've been asked, it's been an automatic no.

It’s not just libraries who are losing their staff in local authorities, it’s across the board. Millions are being slashed from the budgets, year on year.

This is happening across all services, including the essential ones like adults and children’s.

Libraries are a sad casualty but when it comes to providing essential services and safeguarding, what else can be done?

As someone said upthread, budgets from the government have been slashed by 40% and it is going to dwindle to nothing. Council tax won’t cover the basic services at this rate, especially not with an ever increasing older population.

Councillors do get expenses yes but it’s not much, it’s about 10k a year. This means it tends to attract more wealthy retirees, some of whom just want a worthy hobby. It is enough to put a lot of people off, is that even minimum wage?

This government are fucking with our country. I know councils aren’t perfect but they are hobbled in a major way. It’s going to get a lot worse than libraries.

Christ, the posters who are stating “libraries are outdated”/“no one uses libraries” are showing their ignorance.

I work in a library, luckily within a local authority that has gone out of its way to keep libraries open and even open new ones. Libraries are much more than book issues and rhymetimes. We make weekly visits to local schools and nurseries, a hostel for refugees and a hostel for victims of domestic violence. We run IT lessons primarily for elderly and vulnerable people and provide assistance to people seeking housing, benefit advice etc.. There are numerous children’s events throughout the week and regular homework clubs, we always put on extra events during the holidays. There are a number of children that I have to keep an eye on as they are regularly left unattended in the library for hours, presumably as parents are at work.

I love my job but it is hard work and as you can imagine I don’t get generously compensated! As social care has it’s budget cut and cut libraries and their staff pick up the slack. I’ve also had numerous colleagues assaulted at work.

As a previous poster said, if you care about your local library please borrow books, attend events etc.. we are monitored constantly to ensure we’re worth the spends so it really does make a difference.

If there are 252 million library visits per year then I think they are being used

It's terrible imo and it worries me for libraries everywhere. The main library in my hometown is in a beautiful building and they're closing that down to turn it to a museum. It's a small town.