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Thu 13 Jan 2011, 17:52
Thanks for the info about the epetitions Nick, have signed both and thanks Dave for your kind words. Apologies for the delay in providing details re The Friends of the Library but a meeting we had arranged with library managers before Christmas had to be postponed due to snow in Banbury and was only held on Monday.
On Saturday 5 February at midday there will be a Read In at the library. This is part of a national action in libraries threatened with closure to show how libraries are supported and valued. Residents can come along and read a favourite poem or prose passage.
On 28 February the Friends AGM will be held in the Friends Meeting House and we have asked the Town Council to call a public meeting on the issue as they did in 1997 when the library was last threatened with closure and the Friends of the Library was formed. We wish the Cabinet member Cllr Heathcoat to attend as well as our County councillor and Library management.
Can I suggest that anyone who is writing to David Cameron uses snail mail as in my experience emails do not get the same attention.
We shall also run a petition in the Town soon. I agree with Glena that an universal cut in library hours as in 1998 would be much fairer and would not damage the library infrastructure. The Big Society could make up the hours financailly or with volunteers. As far as I have been able to ascertain the decisions were made on visits to libraries and issues of books, DVDs etc but not apparently if a Book Club borrows books which are handled by Penny but don't count. The size of populations in the various towns and villages has been ignored. Visits are just counted so the purpose of the visit is unknown. It could be to borrow books, to ask the way, to use the computers or just to keep out of the cold! If issues and visits are related to population it becomes clear that place such as Burford (with a population less than half that of Charlbury) and Woodstock have high visitor numbers but fewer issues. The only explanation I came up with is that well off tourists are using the free computers! If you look at issues relative to population the best used are those faced with closure. We have the smallest library relative to the population in West Oxon and that is ignored. The elderly and those with young children will certainly suffer most if the library does close and the impact assessment required by law is well down the decision making process.
There is to be a public consultation which until Monday was due to be March to May but could now be earlier. A request to Cllrs Heathcoat and Owen for clarification has produced "we don't know yet". If the library closes there is no guarantee of a mobile replacement as that service will also be cut.
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