Unfortunately it is characteristic of the public library service that they have no recognition of their own figures and they hate comment from outside.

There are so many aspects that could easily have been put right – but the days are running out and the pandemic has made it harder.

We had to start with ‘what do the public think that libraries are for’ – and then make sure we gave them what they wanted. Unfortunately the figures show we haven’t done that for a very long time.

In the end they forget – as councillors have begun to do – why we have them at all and why we ought to pay for them. All councillors see now is that if they are closed a few people make a fuss and they have to be ready for that.

I wrote ‘Who’s in Charge?’ about Hampshire a long time ago. Now you can read either ‘On the closure of English Public Libraries’ which tells the whole sorry story or ‘The Freckle Report 2020’ which shows that even the Americans are catching the same disease now.

Also comparing what libraries in the US and elsewhere are doing differently and showing actual direct evidence of the impact, but if this is happening then I’m not seeing it.

Is it just the impact of the funding cuts, or are there other things libraries could be doing?
Is there a change in reading habits? Is the rising cost of fines a factor? Should libraries be talking to people who are no longer borrowing from the library and asking why? Is there a lack of marketing? Is Tim right? Are libraries trialling different approaches?

If it all turns out to be only the impact of the cuts and there’s nothing we can do on a day to day basis then shouldn’t we at least check this? I guess we’ve all been battling to stay afloat but It’s not like this is a very new trend.

Frustrating – we are supposed to be information professionals but we don’t seem to use evidence, data and information very well sometimes!

The decline in England of public library book borrowing over the last twenty years is extraordinary. Twenty years ago public library book borrowing in England was 9 per head per year now its 3. In the USA and Australia over the same period there has been relatively little change in book borrowing per head.

In all the reports on public libraries over the last decade there has been virtually no focus on the decline in library book borrowing. Neither have we seen any concerted effort by local authorities to turn the position around. Have Chief Librarians just given up on books?

And as Tim famously put it in one of his papers – Who’s in charge?

It’s no use having ‘lists’ and ‘worksheets’ if the basic collections of books to read are inadequate.

In England, people borrow 3.1 books per year from libraries. In the US that figure is 7.1 and in Australia it is 6.9. Our service is poor –

But Ian is right to say that the profession and the chief librarians need to concentrate a lot more on books – much more than they do. Not only on events and promotions, but more importantly on increasing the level of buying and replacing stock

At budget time, they need to persuade councillors that the book fund is the priority above all others, Especially the book fund for children’s books.