Bentham News February - Library

Library Closure – Consultation or Closed Book?

 By Charlotte Munday

This is the last month of public consultation about closing Bentham Library. Hopefully by now many people will have seen the document, “Future Delivery of Library and Information Services in North Yorkshire. Public Consultation 1^st Dec 2010 – 28 Feb 2011”, but you need to know where to look for it (www.northyorks.gov.uk/libraryconsultation), and have access to a computer, unless you have been lucky enough to lay your hands on one of the few printed-out copies.

North Yorkshire is proposing to close 24 of its libraries, including Bentham and Ingleton, and to “remove” the ten mobile libraries, excluding the “super” mobile. Approximately 13 libraries would close in the first year (2011/12), and a further 11 libraries over the next three years.    18 “core” libraries would remain, of which Settle and Skipton would be the nearest to Bentham.

Local communities affected can consider if they want to develop some alternative provision – for example the “community library model”. To quote:  “This is where a library facility is integrated with other community venues, led and managed by the local community with professional support from the library service”. There are some existing examples of “community libraries” at, for instance, Hawes and Grassington. These depend on the work of volunteers - which fits in well with the government’s “Big Society” idea.

It has to be said that so far this consultation seems to be less about whether we agree with the proposal to close Bentham Library, and more about whether we are willing to make alternative provisions.

 The document gives some ideas of costs. For example, for everyone using a branch library it costs on average £16.50 per year, and for everyone using the mobile service, an average of £77.50 per year. But the document doesn’t break down these costs, or give any comparisons with costs of other services. It seems, as one national newspaper put it, that “Libraries are seen as an easy touch when it comes to balancing the books”.

So is there anything we can do to save Bentham Library? Yes, there is. We can support the new Bentham and Ingleton Library Action Group, led by District Councillor Linda Brockbank (see page 5). We can fill in the questionnaire available in the library, or on-line. And we can write directly to North Yorkshire County Council and make our feelings known.

But most of all we can raise our voices to save Bentham Library on Saturday the 5^th of February, the National Protest Day against Library Closures. Everyone is invited to meet at the library between 10am and 1pm to show their support for the library. A “Read-In” is being planned where people are invited to read from a passage from their favourite book, or a poem or story. Children are especially invited to dress up as their favourite storybook character (though no doubt grown-ups could as well!). Contact Irena on 61076 for more information.

Some have suspected that North Yorkshire’s library closure consultation was merely an “exercise”, and that the decision to close our library was actually a closed book. Now let’s see.  If enough of us raise our voices, can we keep our library open?