YP Letters: Without trained professional staff, a library is not a library

From: M Vaughan, Stannington Road, Sheffield.
Should libraries receive extra funding?Should libraries receive extra funding?
Should libraries receive extra funding?

PLEASE can we stop referring to volunteer libraries in Sheffield as “libraries” (The Yorkshire Post, September 21).

If these facilities were indeed libraries, the council would be classing them as such under the 1964 Act of Parliament covering libraries.

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I wish the volunteers who have tried to fill the gaps in the council-run, statutory libraries well, but we do need councillors to stop calling these facilities libraries.

A library without paid and trained staff isn’t a library, it’s a community centre.

By all means, call them community centres, but don’t insult library users and staff by calling them libraries. They aren’t.

Thank you to the librarians past and present in Sheffield for their life-changing work, and thank you to all who have fought for and continue to fight for the fully staffed library service Sheffield deserves.

From: Charles Lawson, Halifax Road, Brighouse.

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SPENDING on library services in Calderdale has fallen by 31 per cent since 2011.

I have staffing figures for the 2010/11 financial year, there were 58 full time equivalent, in the 2013/14 financial year this had fallen to 42.

This represents a 27.6 per cent fall.

I also have the figures for human resources department for the same years. The number has fallen from 125 in 2010/11 to 100 in 2013/14. This back office department that provides no direct service to the ratepayers of Calderdale has seen a mere 20 per cent reduction. Priorities?

From: Nick Keer, Cottingley

WHY is it such a tragedy when libraries close? The internet has – and continues – to take over. I haven’t been in a library myself for well over 20 years.

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Any information you might need to know is now freely available on-line.

When it comes to books, it’s far easier to just buy what you want online at Amazon or eBay.

If you prefer, you can always simply purchase and download the Kindle version of your 
chosen book as a great many books are now available in this format.

Technology is constantly moving forward and improving as is the ease of accessing it 
and we need to keep up with it.

Being a technophobe in 
this modern world will only 
lead to isolation in the years 
to come.