"I'm sure getting children into the habit of visiting their local library is ultimately better" - very true, except that library opening hours are now "under threat" in some areas, and even libraries themselves, because of local government budget cuts.
As far as I remember, libraries are covered by law requiring there to be facilities, but not 'sacrosanct' in the way that various other 'front line' services are.
Something to keep on the lookout for - closures because of purse string tightening.
I know there is this 'Freedom of Information' Act in force, but try getting details off your local council about numbers of staff, management structure, and how many of the senior staff get 100,000+ a year and you will probably draw a blank, wherever you live (if you don't, I'd like to be proved wrong about the degree of secrecy generally surrounding council staffing etc).
On the council sites I've looked at, if they include minutes of meetings, they give a list of attendees and then in the notes of who said what, giving only job titles (no list of real name vs job title). In the contact section of sites, the council officers and staff are not listed, just the councillors as the 'public facing' people, along with their e-mail and phone number etc, so it seems like a closed shop, staff hiding behind job titles when they e-mail etc, etc, to me.