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December 11, 2007
The enemy makes their position clear- in Buckinghamshire
This silly article has appeared in the 'Bucks Herald' -- and follows many other acts of a hostile nature in Buckinghamshire
'The role of libraries in Buckinghamshire will have to completely change if they are going to survive in future- according to a report at a Bucks County Council meeting.
The Culture and Learning service has been tasked by Councillor Margaret Dewar, portfolio holder for community services, to produce a new vision for the library servic through to 2017 and in a report to Bucks County Council at a meeting on November 22, Cllr Wendy Mallen said one increasingly popular strategy was to redefine the library as a 'one stop shop' .
This would mean developing the library as a place on the High Street with council services including a job centre, creche and coffee shop.
This idea has been successfully used in Hampshire, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Birmingham where buildings have been rebranded as Cultural Centres or Ideas Stores.
Cllr Mallen said over the past 10 years the number of books available for reference or lending had declined by 10 percent. This decline in the quality of the book stock had had a predictable effect on the use of libraries.
The council was unable to compete with cheap book shops encouraging people to buy copies of books online and Cllr Mallen said that if current trends continue, libraries would have no books to lend well before the end of the century.
One way the service believes it can encourage book lending is by taking libraries out into the community with the new Bucks communities mobile, or supermobile as it has become known.
The supermobile provides a full branch library on wheels service to seven of the eight communities where branch libraries were closed at the end of 2006.
The vehicle is 40ft in length and provides a six day week service including Sundays visiting each community for three half days per fortnight including one weekend visit.
It has a shelf stock of over 2,800 items including adult and junior books, magazines, large print, DVD's spoken word CD's and tapes and graphic novels
Bucks Free Press Wednesday 5 Dec 2007
Posted by Perkins at December 11, 2007 9:05 PM