WI joins battle to save UK libraries

There has been an ongoing battle across 2011 with individuals and organisations joining together to fight the loss of libraries that so many local communities are facing thanks to cuts in local government spending. Currently more than 600 libraries in England alone are under threat of closure. But additional help to save these libraries may be at hand, as 208,000 Women's Institute members join the campaign to prevent local library closures wherever they are proposed.

Ruth Bond, the chair of the organisation stated; "WI members clearly recognise the worth that local library services bring to communities, often in isolated areas, and we will now work hard to prevent such services being removed from the areas where they are often needed most."

The vote followed an impassioned speech at the WI's AGM from the library body CILIP's chief executive Annie Mauger, in which she warned a 4,500-strong audience in Liverpool that "if we lose libraries, they may never come back".

"We believe that 20% of the libraries in England alone are at risk. Possibly even more ... We could lose 600 libraries in 600 communities and many mobile libraries to remote areas," said Mauger. "Where library buildings are safe, it's staff, funding and opening hours that are at risk. We know that there have to be savings. But we believe that this level of cuts is disproportionate to other savings being made by local authorities. Libraries at risk are often in communities with the fewest nearby public facilities. As local libraries close, many more people will have to make long and inconvenient journeys or will stop using the library altogether."

Before the AGM, librarians had been speaking to local WI branches around the country, urging them to support the campaign to persuade the government that libraries are "an essential educational and information resource".

"From Shilton in Warwickshire to Leyland in Lancashire and Pudsey near Leeds, you have been voting to help us save libraries," said Mauger. "The Women's Institute has a special kind of power. You have influence. You can make change happen. You campaign for the things you believe in."

Libraries, she said, "help fight illiteracy, ignorance and exclusion. Libraries bring people access to the world beyond their horizon ... As a child, books open up the worlds of knowledge and imagination. All through life libraries empower people through access to information beyond anything that anyone could buy for themselves."

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