from Public Libraries News

Saturday, 11 December 2010

800 to 1000 libraries may be under threat.
311 libraries plus 20 mobiles currently under threat or recently closed. Being the list below of individual authorities represents around one-third of those in the UK, that could mean perhaps 800 to 1000 libraries could be under threat when all budget proposals are announced*. Tim Coates today announced he was in "despair" at this news. CILIP have been active behind the scenes and have promised action in the next week to publicise the plight of public libraries. Ed Vaizey, the minister responsible for libraries has written this week to each council to remind them that libraries are a statutory service. Most councils decide their budgets for 2011/12 in February so, if you too are concerned by a proposed cut in funding for libraries in your authority, there is not much time left to let your councillor/MP/Minister know.*Thanks to Desmond Clarke for pointing this out.
Birmingham - Tower Hill library may close, protests begin - Walsall Advertiser
Doncaster - reaction to the cuts - Save Doncaster Libraries
Dorset - Public consultation on closure of 20 (out of 34) libraries - Dorset Echo
Gloucestershire - campaign to save Matson Library - This is Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire - local council meetings fail to sell the message of closures - Friends of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire - deathblow to libraries? - Ruscombe Green
Gloucestershire - messages of support for libraries, inc. video - Friends of Gloucestershire
Highland - Wick Library to close, new one in school outside of town centre - John O'Groats Journal
Leicestershire - privatisation for libraries and/or co-location - Lutterworth Mail
Leicestershire - Concern at cuts - BBC
North Yorkshire - Gargrave and Grassington could be community-run, only big towns to have a library - Craven Herald and Pioneer
Oxfordshire - the news on libraries is awful so how bad will cuts be for other services? - Oxford Mail
Oxfordshire - more cuts to be announced (goodbye Oxford Literary Festival?) - BBC
Oxfordshire - Campaigners, including MP and Phllip Pullman, protest at cuts - Oxford Mail
Sandwell - doing well - Halesownen News (yippee!)
Wandsworth - your chance to take part in consultation - Wandsworth Council
Warrington - Phone Box as Library - Warrington GuardianWest Sussex - Cuts to libraries to be discussed next week - Argus.
This article suggests at least some libraries will be either closed or given to volunteers - Chichester Observer.
Wigan - did you know our library is in danger of closing? - Standish Talk
MLA "It's not the libraries that matter" Future Libraries Programme Newsletter - MLA
Tim Coates despairs - Good Library Blog
Reading Agency shows power of youth volunteering in libraries - Alan Gibbons
Arts Council (soon to be responsible for libraries) under fire - London Evening Standard
Plea for councillors not to cave into "middle class lobbyists" in favour of libraries - Public Finance
Councils to be told how much their funding will be cut early next week - Daily Telegraph - libraries mentioned several times in article as amongst those services most likely to close.
Eric Pickles seems more concerned about Winterval than the cuts - Guardian
Localism Bill - closed library? community groups may get first right of refusal on the building - BBCChoose a library for the Guardian to look at and, possibly, save - Guardian - A significant proportion of the comments after the article are in favour of closing libraries.
Kate Mosse in defence of libraries - Guardian
Aberdeenshire - some
Angus - 4 libraries closed this year (April) to be possibly replaced by a mobile
Argyll and Bute - 3 libraries and mobile library.Barking and Dagenham - 5
Barnet - some - public consultation hereBarnsley - up to 8Bedfordshire - 1 mobile to go Birmingham - 40
Bolton - Up to 8
Brent - 6 (out of 12)
Bristol - some may be staffed by volunteers
Buckinghamshire - up to 14 to close or be staffed by volunteers
Cambridgeshire - some
Camden - several plus one mobile library
(£2 million cut)Central Bedfordshire - one mobile library to go
Cornwall - up to 23
Croydon - 1 (local studies)
Devon - (mobile stops cut)
Doncaster - 13,
(may also be taken out of council control)Dorset - up to 20 (out of 34) to close or be given to community groups
Dumfries - 7
Flintshire - 5
and at least one mobileGloucestershire - Up to 25 and 6 mobiles - 11 to close or go to volunteers. 7 to close if they don't find a partner. A further 11 reduced to 3.5 hours a week (this is just a small figure I include them under "closed"), 6 mobile libraries to go. Hampshire - (58 FTE jobs to go)
(and mobile library review)
(libraries merged with IT/property etc)Harrow - (34 FTE to go)
Hartlepool - 1 confirmed to close (another to merge with community centre, all library's hours cut)
Hertfordshire - (opening hours to be cut by one third - from 2236 hours down to 1575) - At least one library (Borehamwood) faces a 40% cut
Highland - (Wick Library to close and merge with school library)
Hounslow - (12 FTE to go, 1 IT skills suite closed)
Isle of Wight - up to 10 (out of 11)http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4018469601482369709
Kirklees - at least 1
Leeds - Up to 20 (out of 52)
Leicestershire - all libraries could be privatised, put to trust or shared
(merge of lending/reference- 14 FTE jobs lost)
Lewisham - 5
Milton Keynes - 2
Newport - 7
Northumberland - some
North Norfolk - some (c. £1m reduction)
North Somerset - 1 closed, 2 proposed.
Weston Mercury updateNorth Yorkshire - 24 to close or be staffed by volunteers, 9 mobiles to go off road.
Nottingham - (80 FTE jobs to go, 75% off bookfund,
30 libraries have less opening hours)
Oldham - (increase in volunteers, merging, cuts)
Oxfordshire - 20 - list of those under threat
hereRedbridge - 5 out of 12 may close, another may relocate.
Renfrewshire - (2 libraries to move into smaller sites in community centres)
Richmond - 1
Rochdale - (some library managers to to go in first phase of cuts)
Sefton - 3
Sheffield - (30% cut expected)
Shropshire - 1 (reference library to merge with central library)
Somerset - several. 7 libraries have reduced opening hours until decision made/jobs freeze.
Stoke - 2 and 1 mobile library,
(ends RNIB service)
Suffolk - up to 2
Tower Hamlets - (staff made to reapply for their own jobs -23 library staff replaced)
Wakefield - "several"
Walsall - at least 8 (30 FTE).
More details here Wandsworth - 1 plus reduction in hours in others
Warrington - 2 and 1 mobile library
West Sussex - Some (5 FTE lost, some librarians pay reduced to library assistant)
Wigan - Up to 15 out of 17
(£1.1m cut off £4m budget)Wiltshire - (26 FTE posts to go inc. 9 out of 13 community librarians)
Posted 11 Dec ...www.publiclibrariesnews.blogspot.com