Editorial: Offering everything from coding clubs to company, they are more essential than ever as other services vanish
in this summer’s far-right riots, an appeal quickly raised more than £250,000 to restore the facility. That was testament to the community’s deep attachment, but also to the broader appreciation of the value that libraries bring to society.
Yet they are in crisis – again. Thirteen have closed in Merseyside. The UK has lost one in 20 since 2016, with 180 closed in that time, a BBC investigationof her local library in Kensal Rise, London, after campaigning in vain against council plans to close it. The thriller writer Lee Child, creator of Jack Reacher,that the library in Birmingham where he spent hours as a boy did nothing less than save his life.
Where else can you find craft workshops, Lego, coding and chess clubs alongside reading challenges and author events, all for free? Rhyme times offer desperately needed company to isolated parents, as well as stimulation for children.can be a lifeline, not just to those unable, or unwilling, to spend £20 on the new Sally Rooney novel.
In many cases, trained librarians have been replaced by volunteers. The Kensal Rise library that Smith relied on as a childFor all their benefits, funding for libraries is never a priority, trumped by the more urgent demands of healthcare and schools. And yet, properly resourced, they can help alleviate the pressures on both. Campaigners are trying tobefore it is too late.
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