Recap for those who missed my last post: Newcastle City Council is planning to turn eight libraries into “Library Express” services, with limited facilities, no staff and possibly combined with other agencies like community centres. It is not clear yet which libraries, and the plans are supposed to be implemented between April and September.
If you want to help save our libraries, here are a couple of pointers:
- The Council is looking for input on its 2011 budget, and the survey specifically contains a question about the library service. You can access the survey here. Deadline is February 11th, so please do fill it in and let them know what you think.
- Go into your local library and talk to the staff and members of the public there to find out how much they know about the plans and how they feel about them. Comment here to let me know.
- In the meantime, I’ll be looking to get in touch with the Coalition of Resistance (email me if you’re reading this), see how I can get some local media attention on this, and also look into other ways of contacting the council more directly, beyond the budget survey. I’ll keep you posted. Obviously, comment/email me if you have any thoughts on this.
- I have also asked the guys who run the map of planned library closures to add the Newcastle data to the map.
My God. I was googling “library closures” and imagine my horror when your post(s) turned up; I had been cocksure that Newcastle had been spared the national cull.
The Newcastle city library has opened my eyes to too much for me to now close my eyes and perpetuate the evil by doing nothing. The last thing I discovered at the city library was Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home”, which I immediately proceeded to hoard for 2 months while I flogged it mercilessly to all my astounded friends. I’d even go so far as to hazard that without the City Library and its sidekicks I would not be philosophically who I am today.
That same philosophy is now telling me to ask you if there are any ways I can stand up and be counted. If there is anything I can do to preserve this last bastion of egalitarian self-improvement in Newcastle, do email me, I will do all I can.
Thanks for flagging this up – there hasn’t exactly been a city-wide poster campaign to that effect I must admit. Sneaky.
I am shocked. I thought the Newcastle area had managed to avoid the horrible closures that are happening seemingly everywhere else. This immediately makes me want to take action, and do something about this.
Anything I can do to help, I would be glad to.