I was reminded recently of a UK library that in 2011 was threatened with closure – until the residents took action. Curious, I checked and am very pleased to discover six years on and the library is still open!
Back then, the residents of the small town in Britain borrowed every single book from their local library in an attempt to stop it from being closed.
But when the Milton Keynes Council decided to close Stony Stratford’s library as part of budget cuts, 6,000 of the town’s residents decided they had another story to tell.
A week before the announcement of the proposed closure, the library held 16,000 books. After the announcement the stunned librarians presided over bare shelves. The people of Stony Stratford had taken home their maximum allowance of 15 books, including dusty mechanics manuals and flimsy paperback novels. At one stage during that week, nearly 380 books were being stamped out on loan every hour.
The campaign, called ‘Wot No Books’, was organised on Facebook by Friends of Stony Stratford Library. At the time the group said the protest aimed to show the void that would be left in the community if the library closed.
The Stony Stratford Council backed the campaign against the Milton Keynes Council, because like many of the town’s groups, it held its meetings in the library. The Milton Keynes Council eventually relented.