Libraries and Mothballing

Aberdeen is apparently proposing to "mothball" most its libraries according to this press report which says "It is also hoped that a saving of £863,000 could be achieved by mothballing all of the city’s libraries other than Aberdeen Central."

This was one of the suggestions made during the Libraries Transformation in Brent.  It is based on two majorly flawed premises.

The first is that the service can suddenly be revived in a few years if a new government came in that decided to fund local government properly.  This isn't going to happen.  Even a much more generous central government would have (a) other pressing priorities such as the NHS (b) Huge continuing pressures (e.g. an aging population) that the current local government structure cannot support without big new resources.  Re-opening old libraries is just not going to trump that list of priorities.

Secondly, libraries that are closed are not just frozen in time.  The stock begins to go out of date (e.g. the reference books, How to books and so on.  If these books are not weeded and replaced, the old volumes can be positively misleading.  Similarly, all the IT equipment (which may well be leased) continues to go out of date.  The building continues to cost money as it sits there.  It needs to be guarded and maintained.  Rates on it need to be paid.  It is not just an object.  It continues to have running costs.  If it is simply not operating you get the running cost but no actual output.  There is also an opportunity cost in that the book collection and IT, if placed in a location people can actually use them, can benefit people instead of just sitting there idle.