246 libraries plus 17 mobiles currently under threat or recently closed

Number has increased due to a figure (6) being placed on the number of libraries threatened in Wigan.  Hampshire are reviewing mobile library services (on top of 58 FTE losses already announced). Renfrewshire are closing 2 libraries and moving them in to community centres – I have not included these two in the tally as technically the libraries are just moving site.

Tim Coates in the Good Library Guide appears to be forming a Libraries Alliance and also confidently states that legal action will be taken against the first authority that appears to contravene the 1964 Libraries and Museums Act.

The House of Lords discussed public libraries today with an interesting insight into how the great and the good regard the issues involved.  The public reaction to the proposed dramatic closure of 10 out of 11 libraries in the Isle of Wight appears to be growing.  Channel Four worries about Islamist hatebooks in public libraries and there is a brutal murder by crossbow in Toronto Library.

Argyll and Bute – 2 library closures the preferred option – Helensburgh Advertiser
Buckinghamshire – council appeals to the Big Society – Bucks Free Press
CILIP – election results – CILIP
Gloucestershire – consultation plans “a complete sham” – Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries
Gloucestershire – ex-librarians protest at cuts – This is Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire – council appeals to the Big Society – Gazette (are Bucks and Glos talking to eachother?)
Gloucestershire – new campaign group to save libraries – Cotswold Journal
Hampshire – mobile library service review – Salisbury Journal
Hartlepool – more on the cuts already announced – Gazette Live – original news here 
Houses of Parliament – Public Libraries and Museum Act 1964 (Amendment) Bill 2010-11 – Parliament
House of Lords – discusses public libaries – Alan Gibbons
Isle of Wight – cuts may mean strike – Isle of Wight County Press
Isle of Wight – don’t let 150 years of libraries die – Isle of Wight County Press
Neath Port Talbot – library included in new Afan Lido – BBC
North Yorkshire – cost of closures will be the community – Harrogate Advertiser, via Voices for the Library
North Yorkshire – Eastfield library closure is robbing the poor – Scarborough Evening News
Oxfordshire – three letters from authors against the cuts – Alan Gibbons
Renfrewshire – 2 libraries to close and move into community centres – Evening Times
Wakefield – Dec 2009 library closure was railroaded through – Wakefield Express
Wigan – Help us save our library – Wigan Today

Library Alliance CIC to be formed – Tim Coates
Legal action to take place when libraries closed – Tim Coates
Inquiry called into “Islamist hate books” in UK libraries – Channel Four
“Who uses libraries?” poem – Keren David
Who are Voices for the Library? – CILIP
World Book Night – boosting reading at a time of library closures – Daily Telegraph
USA – Library Toddler story time is great (inc. NYPL video) – Huffington Post
USA – man killed with crossbow in Toronto library – Suite 101