GIVE PUBLIC LIBRARIES BREATH OF LIFE

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 25th Aug 2006

Only days after launching a national Love Libraries campaign, the Government demonstrated it had very much fallen out of love with libraries. In its new cultural participation target, the Government consigned the invaluable cultural role of libraries to the dustbin by recognising buying books but not borrowing them from public libraries.

The buried document was discovered by senior Liberal Democrats as they visited pioneering Sutton Central Library - the first entirely self-service public library in the country - and in a Lib Dem run council.

Commenting, Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield and Spokesperson for Arts and Culture, said:

"It's bizarre that the Government should eulogise libraries in public at the same time as writing off their importance in private.

"Sutton has shown how libraries can shake off their dusty image and instead be lively centres of learning in the community.

"But it's not just in Sutton but in councils across the country that Liberal Democrat councils are breathing life into public libraries.

"The Government's incessant squeeze on local government finance could cause scores of library closures by the end of this year.

"It's those who can't afford to buy all their books and for whom libraries are a crucial point of contact with council services that will be hardest hit.

"At their best public libraries provide 21st century technology, customer service and convenience while maintaining a good stock of books - a formula Sutton seems to have got right."