I was surprised to read this article by the Department for Education whilst in the midst of three local libraries being targeted for closure.
Starting in January 2026 the Department for Education and National Literacy Trust are joining forces for a “National Year of Reading”. This is a campaign intended to encourage parents to read more and “reverse the trend” of children being unable to read, or report that they don’t enjoy reading. This will build on a £27.7 million support plan to improve teaching reading and writing in schools. The National Literacy Trust is also distributing over 72,000 new books to children in areas with high rates of child poverty to “support positive reading habits at home.”
Meanwhile, the library closure map across the UK looks like this:
The Department for Education’s article makes no mention of supporting these libraries which seems to contradict the campaign’s core purpose. Our library consultation actually went live on the 31st July, 25 days after the article was published. Locally, one library is closing – no negotiation – and two others are being pitted against each other to disguise the fact that the council want one or both closed. The reason is a mystery. Financial reasons don’t make a whole lot of sense. Our library is not expensive to run. There are significant changes the library could make to support itself and the proposed alternative – mobile library services – appear to be more expensive to run.
Is anyone else finding these actions at cross purposes?
If you are affected by a past or current library closure we’d love to hear from you, please email here with your thoughts, advice or resource requests.
If you’d like to contribute to keeping libraries open please visit your local library, use the services and if you are able to contribute, ask what help they need. You can also contribute to our book or email and request a resource.