Since the news of the Coaltion Government's 'Future Libraries' programme was announced last week, fears have grown that the UK's public library service will be a major casualty of the planned austerity measures.
With new data from the Department for Culture Media and Sport showing that library use is sliding, library campaigner, Tim Coates, in a comment to the BBC, warned that up to 1,000 libraries could be closed within the next 18 months. Libraries for Life for Londoners, of which Coates is the chair, has written to local authorities urging them to keep libraries open and focus their cost-cutting efforts on "excessive" senior and middle management and on consultants, which, he says, "have nothing to show for what they have done".
Independent charity, The Reading Agency, in a press release says that the challenge for public libraries is "to scale up what's working, and support the development of a dynamic, modernised reading service that captures the interest of the public." However, the statement continues, libraries "should not be a soft target for cuts."
At the same time, concerns are increasing that authors could lose out as library services are cut back. The Society of Authors and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society have created a petition for authors to sign, urging the government to protect the Public Lending Right, which provides authors with a small income, limited to £6,600, when their books are borrowed from public libraries. The SoA says the PLR is a "significant and much-valued part of authors’ incomes" and costs the Department for Culture Media and Sport only £7.5m per year.
