Politicians Spending More Money on Libraries than Museums

THE GUARDIAN
By Ken Worpole

UNITED KINGDOM---Library campaigners, among whom I count myself, need not be too full of doom and gloom. While cuts and closures are affecting library services, it is also true that the past decade has seen a reinvention of the public library in the UK and across the world. Increasing numbers of people are now engaged in some form of further or higher education, and need study space and access to the internet, which many cannot find at home. The rise of single-person households in city centres – in some European capitals now approaching 50% of households – means that libraries increasingly act as a meeting place or home from home, as they do for migrants, refugees and even tourists. The revived global enthusiasm for libraries – of which Seattle is perhaps the most ambitious – originated in north America in the 1990s. [link]