Libraries in cash crisis
PUBLIC libraries face their biggest cuts for nearly a decade as skint councils struggle to make savings.
Tory cutbacks in the past 12 months have seen funding for libraries fall by £25million – from £944million a year to £919million.
Many councils have been forced to merge branches or hand them over to volunteers to run.
Some 525 libraries – nearly a tenth – have closed since 2010 and another 111 are facing the axe.
Nick Poole, of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, warned: “We are failing to invest in creating a literate nation.”
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport insisted it was “absolutely committed to helping libraries flourish”.