This is from an editorial in the Guardian, about the fate of libraries. Don't think this applies only to the U.K.---libraries everywhere are in danger:
"Faced with budget cuts, many councils will be tempted to retrench. They will freeze new acquisitions, cut opening hours, and perhaps charge for book clubs and children's storytimes. Some libraries will probably close altogether. The risk is that this is done as quietly as possible, in order to avoid an outcry, and without giving local people the opportunity to support their services in ways that may not have occurred to them. But a bigger risk exists: that libraries in affluent market towns are saved thanks to middle-class activism, while those in poorer areas see their book stocks shipped off to a windowless room in the supermarket on the ring road. People who know how borrowing books helped to transform their own lives now need to hold their councils to account – and not just for their own sakes."
Times and reading habits and technology are changing, but we still need our libraries. Beware of the dumbing down and sizing down changes that are sneaked in under the heading of "modernization." If you see it happening, please speak up!
