Library Emergency - The Unkindest Cuts of All

'Who Uses Libraries?', asks Keren David in today's excellent blogpost over on Almost True.  And then she gives a hauntingly all-encompassing list which I urge you to read for yourselves.  In case you hadn't heard or noticed, the UK's libraries are under threat again from cuts.  As Keren says, 'there are those who think that libraries are a soft target', and there are also 'Government ministers who won't protect libraries...because budgets are easier to cut than bankers' bonuses'.  These things are indeed sadly true, but we don't have to accept them as final, nor give in to apathy and despair. 

WE CAN AND MUST FIGHT FOR OUR LIBRARIES.

Before the General Election, our current Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey was vociferous in his support for libraries and against the library closures he called 'cost-driven vandalism'.  Only last February, in a talk to the Society of Bookmen he promised that the Tories would commit themselves to providing 'a first-class library service'.  Where is his passion for libraries now?  In Oxfordshire alone (where Vaizey's Wantage and Didcot constituency lies) no less than 20 libraries are threatened with closure, and they are not the only ones. Libraries everywhere are facing the chop. So, it seems that Vaizey's passion has metamorphosed into a sharp and two-faced cutting axe.

All over Britain, more and more authors are speaking out in public with loud and angry voices about the importance of libraries and the idiocy of closing them.  We are blogging, writing articles, writing to newspapers and MP's, signing open letters and doing all we can to raise public awareness.  Books are a lifeline, an escape, an education--easy access to them via local libraries should be a basic right for all, and most especially for the next generation. 

So I urge you now, if you are passionate about books, reading, learning, education, then join us.  Spread the word.  Make your own angry voices heard in every arena.   Join the Campaign for the Book, run by the wonderful and tireless Alan Gibbons. Because if the libraries go, they won't return.  And that would be a tragedy for all of us. 

PS: For those of you on Twitter, there's now a brand new #CFTB hashtag for Campaign for the Book, and if you wanted to let @edvaizey or @Jeremy_Hunt of the Departure of Culture, Media and Sport know how you feel directly, then please use it to do so.  Let's make this a trending topic for the UK, people.