After picking up my son from preschool today, I opened his bag to find a letter from Oxfordshire County Council, informing us that the entire mobile library service will cease to exist from September. My son had received this letter because our village is usually served by a mobile library twice a month (this had already been reduced from a weekly service) which includes a scheduled stop outside the primary school and preschool. My son enjoys attending a story time on the mobile library twice a month, with his preschool classmates. For many of the elderly residents in our village, the mobile library provides the only access they have to a library. I am disappointed that Oxfordshire County Council have chosen to cut this service, to save money. The following statement is taken from Oxfordshire County Council’s website:
Closure of Mobile Library Service in Oxfordshire
Regretfully, the mobile library service in Oxfordshire will cease to operate in September 2016. This difficult decision was taken in February following extensive public consultation on proposals to make huge financial savings across all county council services.
The last round of visits will begin on Monday 5 September 2016. The final day of the service will be Friday 16 September 2016. We will work with service users to find alternative ways for them to continue accessing library services in the future through our network of 43 library buildings; our online library services; and our Home Library Service.
We would like to thank all our customers for using this service.
The end of libraries is the end of civilized society. It’s obscene that we would even let it happen in the first place. I feel so sad for your community.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agreed. I was so shocked when I found out. I can’t imagine that scrapping the mobile library service would actually save local government much money. They have also been reducing rural bus services, too. So it seems that living in a rural community puts us at a disadvantage, even though we pay taxes like everyone else…
LikeLike