The campaign to defend Britain’s libraries from cutbacks and closures stepped up a gear last month, with the launch of a Libraries Group in Parliament.
The inaugural meeting of the Libraries All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was held in the House of Commons, where MPs and peers were joined by comedian Tony Hawks and the government’s culture minister Ed Vaizey. The group has been set up with support from the Chartered institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).
“Libraries are something I am very positive about,” said Hawkes. “I was recently asked what made me proud to be British and I said it was our libraries.
“Free public libraries and free museums are some of the things we have been world leaders in and other countries have followed us.”
The culture minister added: “I think it’s very important that we have a core library service and professional librarians have to be at the centre of that. I think libraries are here so stay and every community will have a library at their heart, and long may that be so.”