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| Time to invest in good reading for everyone | |
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| Wonderful news that Rob Wilson, the junior minister responsible for libraries, has recognised that libraries provide a vital public service to communities and has made an extra £4m available (Libraries to get £4m to diversify, 2 December). | Wonderful news that Rob Wilson, the junior minister responsible for libraries, has recognised that libraries provide a vital public service to communities and has made an extra £4m available (Libraries to get £4m to diversify, 2 December). |
| Here in Suffolk, our Industrial Provident Society (IPS) has been incredibly successful in managing its reducing budget for the county libraries. However, this is likely to change in the light of proposed cuts. Suffolk Libraries IPS will have to save a further £230,000 in the next financial year (2017/2018). This is on top of the previous year’s cut of £350,000. Over the past five years the total budget will have shrunk from almost £9m to a little over £5m if these latest cuts go ahead. | Here in Suffolk, our Industrial Provident Society (IPS) has been incredibly successful in managing its reducing budget for the county libraries. However, this is likely to change in the light of proposed cuts. Suffolk Libraries IPS will have to save a further £230,000 in the next financial year (2017/2018). This is on top of the previous year’s cut of £350,000. Over the past five years the total budget will have shrunk from almost £9m to a little over £5m if these latest cuts go ahead. |
| So far these savings have been achieved without closures or significant reductions in services and opening hours. All this looks set to change unless Rob Wilson’s extra funding can, in part, find its way to Suffolk. The consequences of such cuts will not just be felt by the book-borrowing public. Libraries are more than a place to borrow a book. They provide the school library service to schools throughout Suffolk and have become centres for information, learning and entertainment. Most worrying is the threat to mobile libraries. | So far these savings have been achieved without closures or significant reductions in services and opening hours. All this looks set to change unless Rob Wilson’s extra funding can, in part, find its way to Suffolk. The consequences of such cuts will not just be felt by the book-borrowing public. Libraries are more than a place to borrow a book. They provide the school library service to schools throughout Suffolk and have become centres for information, learning and entertainment. Most worrying is the threat to mobile libraries. |
| The goodwill of friends’ groups and volunteers, which support all of our libraries, can only be stretched so far before it breaks.Richard BullWoodbridge, Suffolk | The goodwill of friends’ groups and volunteers, which support all of our libraries, can only be stretched so far before it breaks.Richard BullWoodbridge, Suffolk |
| • The vital service that libraries provided to a community can be summed up in one simple concept: the provision of good reading. That “libraries should be about far more than books” according to Rob Wilson, far from being much of a help, is a put-down to that simple, single vital social function. Reference libraries already provide comprehensive information services, so there is nothing bright and new about that, nor any special need to develop it. | • The vital service that libraries provided to a community can be summed up in one simple concept: the provision of good reading. That “libraries should be about far more than books” according to Rob Wilson, far from being much of a help, is a put-down to that simple, single vital social function. Reference libraries already provide comprehensive information services, so there is nothing bright and new about that, nor any special need to develop it. |
| All recent research has shown that reading is the single most important factor in educational and occupational attainment. It is particularly relevant to contemporary society, where the development of emotional intelligence is increasingly important in every walk of life. Research shows that readers of literary fiction in particular demonstrate much greater empathy than non-readers of literary fiction. | All recent research has shown that reading is the single most important factor in educational and occupational attainment. It is particularly relevant to contemporary society, where the development of emotional intelligence is increasingly important in every walk of life. Research shows that readers of literary fiction in particular demonstrate much greater empathy than non-readers of literary fiction. |
| There can be no doubt that the decent library book services of the recent past contributed enormously to the economic and cultural health of communities. The availability of well-printed hardback books in libraries was an important boost to publishing good quality literature rather than the commercial-minded money-spinners we hear too much of today. Good and serious writers and publishers were able to survive while the library system guaranteed basic sales of their books. The economic and cultural pay-off to writers, publishers and library users was incomparable. | There can be no doubt that the decent library book services of the recent past contributed enormously to the economic and cultural health of communities. The availability of well-printed hardback books in libraries was an important boost to publishing good quality literature rather than the commercial-minded money-spinners we hear too much of today. Good and serious writers and publishers were able to survive while the library system guaranteed basic sales of their books. The economic and cultural pay-off to writers, publishers and library users was incomparable. |
| The £4m investment should be channelled into the encouragement of good books in libraries and the culture of reading good books in our communities. Otherwise we are becoming an increasingly philistine society. It is my hope that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party will have better polices that both support the existence of public libraries and oppose this whittling away of reading and culture in the name of the profit motive. John McMillanSpaxton, Somerset | The £4m investment should be channelled into the encouragement of good books in libraries and the culture of reading good books in our communities. Otherwise we are becoming an increasingly philistine society. It is my hope that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party will have better polices that both support the existence of public libraries and oppose this whittling away of reading and culture in the name of the profit motive. John McMillanSpaxton, Somerset |
| • For me, in the 1950s, Sheffield central library meant “the Ref” (the reference library) (Palin joins push to stop library becoming hotel, 6 December). It offered a large desk, warmth, quiet and books presided over by the redoubtable Mary Walton. Upstairs were the pictures. Outside the Peace Gardens for the sandwich. The tram ride cost pence. If this sounds like the famous Python sketch, then best wishes to Michael Palin and the petitioners. It is heartbreaking.John BaileySt Albans, Hertfordshire | • For me, in the 1950s, Sheffield central library meant “the Ref” (the reference library) (Palin joins push to stop library becoming hotel, 6 December). It offered a large desk, warmth, quiet and books presided over by the redoubtable Mary Walton. Upstairs were the pictures. Outside the Peace Gardens for the sandwich. The tram ride cost pence. If this sounds like the famous Python sketch, then best wishes to Michael Palin and the petitioners. It is heartbreaking.John BaileySt Albans, Hertfordshire |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |
| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |