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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