Save our library!

Why are our public library services currently causing controversy across the length and breadth of this country?

Well, ever since local councils, across England, started targeting public library services for budget cuts and closures local people have been organising themselves in order to fight such proposals and preserve these essential services.  National headlines have been generated on a regular basis and in my own local market town we have been hosting resident meetings, for several months now, seeking support and ideas on how we can save our library services.

The message coming from our meetings has been consistent and strong. Local people value their library and its staff and they will not stand by and see it run down or closed altogether. The policy of closing, or severely reducing the capacity of public libraries, is so short-sighted. Libraries are more than a store for old books. They are a gateway to information, advice, learning, and community inclusion for all people. They enable people to participate in society and to seek literary development and entertainment through a rich mix of mediums including internet access, DVDs, audio books, databases, reading groups and advice sessions. Indeed, many would consider them a basic, universal, service that people should expect of any civilised and inclusive society.

But there is another aspect to this rousing of the 'silent majority'. People are finding their voice. The issue captures the interest of all generations. In our town, the children who first discovered their love of reading in their local library are now the parents who are helping their children do the same.

At our Christmas Lights event on Saturday, our 'Friends of Newport Pagnell Library' group ran a stall for the first time, with a family quiz and a chance to talk to people face to face about our passion for the library and why we believe we must keep it for our town and for the generations to come. We were delighted at the positive reaction we received and the offers of support and interest in our cause.

We have also enlisted the help of a famous, now long dead, advocate of public access to literacy, literature and learning - Charles Dickens. We'll be celebrating the bi-centenary of his birth in February 2012 but his stories are today still being enjoyed and read and performed on television and in films. We are putting on some open readings of 'A Christmas Carol' in our library over the next couple of weeks. It's another way we can highlight the value of our library, and our literary heritage, and have a good time into the bargain.

All of us involved in the Friends of Newport Pagnell Library are hoping that the decision-makers in our councils up and down the land - who currently are exhibiting very Scrooge-like behaviour - will see the light. To misquote Dickens, at the moment they seem to be saying
'every idiot who goes about with ['save our library'] on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!'.

Our earnest hope is that through the actions and commitment of local people in local communities, such as ours, we will witness a change of heart from our councils and a vote for the preservation of public libraries of which we can all be proud.

Have a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!