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April 2, 2010
Libraries for Life for Londoners
I was delighted and honoured last night to be invited to stand and to be elected as Chair of LLL. This is the London Community Umbrella group for public library campaigns and friends of public libraries in the capital.
In London there are 384 public libraries and mobiles and 34 Public Library Authorities. Last year there were 54m visits to libraries and 37m book loans. There are 10m books for lending and another 3m for reference. There are 1.7m active members of the public library service which is the highest percentage of the population in the whole UK who use libraries. LLL not only exists to represent them but any of the 7m residents and many millions more visitors to London who need and want to use public libraries. It is a big service as befits one of the great learning centres of the world.
However all these usage figures are declining and there is much to do to put the service back at the heart of the culture of London where it ought to be.
I am very grateful indeed to those representatives who voted last night and I promise them that I will do my best to ensure that the public library service improves quickly as it needs to do.
We need to speak with a clear community voice of library users and make sure that those councils and agencies who manage the service know what is required.
Posted by Perkins at April 2, 2010 1:19 PM