A digest of today’s news items, reproduced here, with kind permission from Shirley Burnham who collated it. For up to date libraries news follow @ShirleyBurnham on Twitter.
DAILY MIRROR : 4th March
Two libraries a week being closed by Tory cuts
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/
Public Libraries News : 3rd March
Librarians better start knowing the price of everything they do or they risk their value becoming nothing
http://www.
Romford Recorder : 4th March
Library membership soars in Havering
He said: “At a time when many public library services seem to lack political support, Havering Library Service is a shining example of how to provide popular public services at a reasonable cost to the tax payer.”
Cllr Curtin praised the staff at Havering’s libraries as “the most remarkable and committed teams of library professionals in any library service I have seen.”
http://www.romfordrecorder.co.
Postcode Gazette : 3rd March
Library campaigners organise public meeting for Tuesday
Sheffield Communities Against Library Privatisation (SCALP) is holding a public meeting this Tuesday (March 5). Campaigners say none of Sheffield’s 28 community libraries should close after the current review into their future concludes next month. The council has warned that 14 will close if alternative means of meeting their running cots are not found, as the council struggles to makes £50 million of spending cuts from April.
http://postcodegazette.com/
Manchester Evening News : 4th March
Thousands sign up in fight to save library from the axe
Members of the Burnage Library Action Campaign have now collected more than 4,000 signatures on a petition to be handed to the town hall.
Campaigners say the library on Burnage Lane is the only community facility they have left and is well used by after-school clubs and readers.
http://www.manchestereveningne
Ham & High : 27th February
Cutting Haringey’s mobile library service an ‘absolute crime’
“Why are they working so hard on these three vulnerable groups? We think it is an absolute crime to do this. The mobile service heads to all those places and people who cannot get to the libraries.”
http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/
Dorset Echo : 4th March
Downton Abbey creator heaps praise on Puddletown library volunteers
http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/
THE INDEPENDENT : 3rd March
Joanne Harris: Not all sweetness and light
One reference to libraries:
“We think certain things are immutably permanent, and they are not. I feel very sad, for instance, that we will shortly have to explain to our kids what a library is.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/
No posts on the 5th. Listings will resume on 6th March.
