Today I’ve been along to Fallowfield Library – one of 6 Manchester libraries threatened with closure in the latest round of public service cuts – cuts due to the government’s austerity programme. (And that’s working really well, isn’t it?) The meeting room was packed and reflected the wide cross-section of local people who depend on the library and see it as the heart of their community. From pensioners who meet there and find it a lifeline, a social hub, and who can only attend because it is near enough to walk, to children involved in youth activities (no youth clubs are left in the area) or who use the computers and other resources for homework. From students who study there and people who use the library to try and find jobs, to people who need help and advice and know the best place to start is at the library. Then of course there are the people of all ages who go in to borrow books (including talking books and books in other languages) or DVDs, to read newspapers or get something photocopied. The clear shared feeling at the meeting was that the library is the heart of the community and that losing it would be a life-blow to community cohesion. ‘There’ll be nothing left,’ was said and repeated several times. ‘It’s all we’ve got.’ There are no other community venues in the area and the library supports many local groups who meet there. Back in June I wrote a piece for The Reading Agency for National Reading Group Day about what libraries mean to me – you can see it here. Every person at the meeting today and those in libraries across the country will have their own stories to tell about what their library means to them. And everyone there today who spoke, except the local authority’s Head of Libraries, was totally opposed to the proposals.
4 thoughts on “National Libraries Day”
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If it was not for a library I would not have had the opportunity to meet you. Ironically in the library that was the nearest to me when growing up, and where many a happy hour was spent on the (awfully scratchy) orange carpet amongst the children’s books, as my mum chose hers upstairs and we would walk home with the shopping trolley full of books!
Thanks Jo. That was a very enjoyable event and it was good to meet you – after getting to know you on Twitter. Events like that – a chance for people to meet writers and writers to meet readers or for people to talk about books, or try their hand at writing are another important aspect of what libraries provide. Scratchy orange carpets and all!
When faced with closing several neighborhood libraries here, they were able to shorten the hours all branches of the library in our county are open rather than close any altogether. For my local library branch, it is now closed on Sundays and its hours on other days shortened by 1 to 3 hours. It was a compromise that has worked well so far as those who depended on the geographic proximity of their local neighborhood branch still have it available to them.
Hi Kim, Thanks for your comment. I think shorter hours are one of the things people are looking at – there is a consultation exercise going on at the moment. Previous cuts have already shortened hours though – so the library I wrote about is closed two and a half days already. Watch this space!