The campaign to save libraries continues

Following Save Our Libraries Day, lots of people have been in touch to tell us about the success of their local protests

The campaign to save libraries continues

Following Save Our Libraries Day, lots of people have been in touch to tell us about the success of their local protests
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Saturday 5 February saw campaigners protesting to save their local libraries from proposed budget cuts and closures on Save Our Libraries Day. Libraries across the country became the scene of mass read-ins, write-ins and ssh-ins, as well as many author events, storytelling sessions and poetry workshops. Read about how some of the events unfolded on the Save Our Libraries Day live blog.

Since then, lots more people have been in touch to tell us about what was happening in their area on Saturday, providing information about the continuing campaign and to lend their support to the campaign to save libraries.

On the live blog thread, thesheikhofalamut pointed out that:

New Cross Library has been occupied in protest against Lewisham council's plan – originally to close it, now to sell it off to some non-public body and withdraw funding, thus ensuring it will not function properly as a library and will likely fail altogether.

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A YouTube video (above) shows the New Cross protesters outside the library on Sunday and you can see a set of photographs of the occupation on Flickr here.

A reader from the Ukraine, Jane Right, saw the liveblog and emailed with a message of support for the campaign:

What you, people of Britain, did is really stunning!
Ukrainian libraries have lots of problems too. I'm talking about finances, I'm talking about books, I'm talking about culture of reading. But we try to find ways to save libraries ... Looks like everywhere people who read have to stand for their favourite libraries!

We've heard about the successful protests that took place in Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Sheffield and Leeds, and Suffolk, among other places.

"No mention of Norbury?" lamented Carefree on the live blog thread. "There were plenty of us there tweeting, taking photos and listening! (And shouting!)"

Meanwhile, as the fate of many libraries hangs in the balance, Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers has added his voice to the campaign. In an article for the Guardian, he writes:

It's hard not to feel utterly despondent at the current plight of public libraries. Along with the NHS and the BBC, our libraries are some of the few truly remarkable British institutions left. So often absolutely ordinary in appearance, a good library should offer escape routes down the most extraordinary avenues, pathways into different worlds from the one you've left outside. Ridding our villages, towns and cities of libraries, which are essential in shaping a nation's consciousness, seems like a direct attack on the soul of the country.
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