Library lessons

DAVID Cameron will be pleased. The communities that have clubbed together to save their local libraries in North Yorkshire helps to provide his much-vaunted Big Society with a belated narrative of sorts.

We wish the volunteers well with their endeavours to sustain the branch library network and hope that their vigour is rewarded with an upturn in usage that ensures the future of this service.

In terms of books borrowed, rural libraries will always compare unfavourably to urban locations, largely because of the size of their catchment areas. Yet rural residents are still entitled to services that exist in metropolitan areas – they, after all, pay for libraries through the council tax.

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However it is also clear that North Yorkshire’s library campaigners intend to provide a far greater range of services than the provision of books and CDs to borrow.

This is admirable. For, if libraries can, once again, become the heartbeat of the local community, there is no reason why the service cannot have a successful future – provided people use these facilities in sufficient numbers. And that is the most important caveat of all.