Almost a fifth of libraries in Britain have closed since 2010

We have a general election next week, and one thing you might wish to bear in mind when casting your vote is that almost one fifth of libraries in Britain have closed since austerity was introduced in 2010.

From today's Guardian: "The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s (Cipfa) annual survey of the UK’s libraries, excluding Northern Ireland, shows there are 3,583 library branches still open in the UK – 35 fewer than last year. Since 2010, 773 have closed."

In the same period, the number of librarians has plummeted from 24,000 salaried staff to 15,300. There are now 51,000 volunteers working in libraries also. The number of library visits has equally plummeted from 315 million visits in 2009/2010 to just 226 million visits over the last year.

The full story is available at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/britain-has-closed-almost-800-libraries-since-2010-figures-show.

There may be many factors affecting how you vote this year. Hopefully you can throw this one into the mix also before December 12th!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.