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.
THE GUARDIAN : 15th April
Asset transfer: the path to success and pitfalls of failure
Some local authorities are trying to get rid of many of their ‘assets’, in the form of buildings, which may actually represent, or have the potential to become financial black holes. These buildings, take libraries for example, may be symbolically important to a community, but they may have huge costs associated with running them and the risk is that they may be taking on a liability, rather than an asset. (and further references to ‘libraries’)
http://socialenterprise.
THE INDEPENDENT : 15th April
Free school meals may be scrapped by councils under ‘tidal wave’ of cuts
“Local government is facing a tidal wave of cuts that makes the 1980s look like a day at the beach. On current trends, the best case scenario is that by 2018 the public will pay more for a lot less – no council leisure centres, far fewer libraries, an end to education support and tighter constraints on who receives social care. In many parts of the country, things could get a lot worse as some councils face effective bankruptcy.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Inverclyde Now : 16th April
Village library move completed
http://www.inverclydenow.com/
