Save our Libraries day today, Saturday 05 February. Please visit your library if you can

[Lio]

There's a list of protests here

But even just using your library today will be a good way of supporting the movement.

And here's a piece in today's Guardian.

I will be off to visit our library soon, but please help keep this thread active if you can. Thank you

Well I would - if it was open

We went today - we go every week without fail and it's the highlight of DD1's week I think. I didn't actually know it was save our libraries day today though. We've piles of children's books at home but nothing compares to finding a book there you'd never heard of that your DC just love.

ooh, inadvertantly i did.

we hadnt been for ages but back in november i think or earlier we borrowed some books.
2 are now lost
i took one book back today but resolved not to use them, untilk the dc's pay their own fines that is.
perhaps i shoudl just and it

i was even goign to ask them if their library was under threat, but didnt like to add a dampener to the occasion

oh they havent got any events near me

My mum was told yesterday that her library (in greater London) is closing. Fucking devastating. For her (she's the manager) the other staff and all the users (high proportion of OAPs who really rely on it.

:(

We went - thanks - hadn't realised it was a day of action and went as a result of your message. (Do go at least once a week, but not usually Saturdays).

We go most weeks. Great facility, would be terrible if they were lost

its terrible what the government are doing - unecessary cutbacks.

The problem is for me that there have been cutbacks previously and the councils have just carried on spending. How can they be in such deficit situations where services need to be cut so drastically now when some of the council employees receive really high salaries and gold-plated pensions. Yet again those most in need are suffering. My own council is already running a huge deficit. I would like to know how much waste there is within the services. Surely if libraries were around for over 100 years there would have been times when spending would be more limited so what has happened now? I do think some councils are making a point of picking those services that affect most people to make an issue and get people online or perhaps I am just a cynic.

Many councils now have a policy of moving towards a situation where they commission services rather than directly provide them. So closure of libraries should be set against this policy as well as the cuts. For the tories it isn't just about reducing cost, it is about ideology as well.