Wednesday 22 June 2011

More petition signatures and signing sessions

The campaign launch in Woodley has been followed by a session collecting signatures in Twyford. Excellent turnout from the campaign, and from local people, who were keen to sign. Got lots of thumbs ups from people driving by who saw our Save our Libraries signs.

Coming up: this Saturday, 25th June, we will be collected signatures in Wargrave between 11.30 and 12.30 pm. If you are around, come and join in!

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Great campaign launch in Woodley

This morning we formally launched the Save our Libraries campaign with a petition session and photoshoot at Woodley library. The press came and did interviews and people were queuing up to sign. They agreed with us. They can't see how a commercial company could make a profit without either closing libraries or increasing charges.

Photos will be posted up in a bit.

Monday 13 June 2011

Save Our Libraries TinyUrl Link

If you find the petition link http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-our-libraries a little long then why not try using our new short link http://tinyurl.com/WBCLibraries courtesy of TinyURL.

That's http://tinyurl.com/WBCLibraries .

Spread the word and keep our libraries open.

Monday 6 June 2011

Save Our Libraries Petition

If you too feel that privatising Wokingham's libraries is a mistake then please follow the link below and sign my petition against the privatisation of Wokingham's libraries.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-our-libraries1.html

Wokingham Council are planning to privatise our libraries

Wokingham Borough Council has set in motion plans to privatise Wokingham's libraries. The council believe that privatising the libraries may save as much as £170k each year, and hope to have completed the transition by next May, 2012.

In essence, this means Wokingham's libraries will be managed by a private company such as LSSI or John Laing. These companies have a reputation for running library services with the bare minimum of staff and, as you might expect from a private enterprise, of seeking to maximise their profits.

The question is: how do they make their profits and who do they charge for their services? The answer , I believe, is likely to be us. Privatisation can only lead to our libraries becoming more expensive and less available for those who need and use them the most.

A PDF copy of the report approved by the council's executive, entitled “[the] Future Of Library Service Provision”, may be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/WBCLibraries1.

If you wish to know more about what privatisation might mean, I suggest  reading: www.dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.com