Saving Libraries

Steve Barlow joins a Read-In at a Somerset school 

Libraries are in trouble all over the country because the local authorities that run them have been told by the government they have to save money. Some are trying to do this without closing libraries, but in many places – for example, Somerset, Gloucester and Oxford - many libraries are threatened with closure.

A lot of authors, poets and illustrators such as Philip Pullman, Alan Gibbons, Kate Mosse, Mark Haddon, Mary Hoffman and us, think this is a really rubbish idea. Libraries are as important as schools and hospitals, and we should do everything we can to protect them. Somerset County Council decided at first it was going to close 20 of its 34 libraries. After a lot of protests, 9 of those libraries are now going to be saved. But we don’t think any library should close, especially in rural areas where people find it difficult to get hold of books and the other services that a modern library provides.

So we’ll be supporting the national Save Our Libraries Day on Saturday 5th February, and we hope you will, too. Steve Barlow will be appearing at Shepton Mallet library and various other places in the town, and if you go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/interactive/2011/feb/01/library-protests-map, you’ll probably find a protest or Love your Library event near you. If not, why not have your own event anyway? Just turn up and read something!