Around 150 libraries to close or be given away since 20th October.

Cuts
North Yorkshire – 24 libraries to close or be given away, mobile libraries culled – The Press.  More in Scarborough Evening News and in the Gazette and Northern Echo
Hampshire – mobile library review, services to be reduced – Kestrel FM.
Oxfordshire – self-service in, 11 f-t jobs out – Oxford Times
Barking and Dagenham – 5 libraries to go – Barking and Dagenham Post
North Somerset – 1 library closed, 2 reprieved – Weston Mercury.
Brent – council had spent £600k on two of the libraries they will close – London Evening Standard
Somerset – consultation – Burnham-on-Sea
Lewisham – reprieve, latest news – Alan Gibbons
Nottingham – introduces PC charges – Nottingham council

In Our Defence
Gloucestershire – hundreds in protest march against library closures – BBC
Martina Cole defends libraries – London Evening Standard
Where are the bodies? –  on Tim Coates’ Three Bs – bricks, books and being open – Phil Bradley’s weblog
Joan Bakewell in defence of libraries “In our culture the library stands as tall and as significant as a parish church or the finest cathedral“- BBC.  Podcast of her “point of view” on Radio 4 here.
Librarians militant, librarianship triumphant – Virtual Dave

Fun
“My god, you’re a library martyr” – why you shouldn’t go to library school – Stephen’s Lighthouse