Monday 6 June 2011

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

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