We're taking a bit of a breather while the world rearranges its underpants. Meanwhile, the other blog is here.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Moving around the deckchairs on the Titanic

Jim Lettuce rings: "Can I come round a check some figures with you? Corporate Directorate have decided that we need to close five libraries and I've got to do the workings-out to show what happens to the public library standards if we take particular libraries out of commission. I asked T.Aldous what the effect would be if we closed five libraries and he said: 'We'd have to have a book sale.'"

So we're having a one-to-one meeting tomorrow. In some respects it's a shame to think of closing libraries, although most of the sound and fury you hear on the subject is focussed on the buildings, not the services. For the past twenty-five years Helminthdale has been running twenty libraries on the resources fit for twelve and it shows badly. It wouldn't be difficult to make a business case for closing five libraries: four virtually choose themselves (Pottersbury Road, for instance, wouldn't cause any ripples in issue or visitor figures and would be a huge saving on building costs, especially after the school recently raised the rent by five grand). The fifth would be any one of about five libraries. It'll be interesting to find out more.

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