More on Volunteer Libraries

The subject of volunteer libraries rumbles on in the media. The Guardian piece linked to repeats some of the usual myths.  There never was a "national" library service, it has always been a municipal duty accounting for by each library authority in different ways.  It also appears to believe that volunteer libraries are doing something different in terms of events.  If you look at a traditional library service such as Brent; events of all kinds have been a feature of what libraries do for many years. 

What really threatens the whole volunteer model is whether they can secure funding, and I suspect they cannot.  Local Councils are seeing rising costs pressures and declining incomes and simply can't carry on funding.  This is why Councils like Brent had to finally bite the bullet on their library services in the first place.  If volunteer libraries don't secure extra funding but just suck money from the public purse, they will end up hollowing out the public library services in ways that are familiar outside Brent.