Libraries run by volunteers as councils look to save money

Nearly half of the libraries on the Isle of Wight are now run by community volunteers, which is, according to the council, the only way of ensuring their survival.

"For me, it was about saving libraries," said councillor Dave Stewart, explaining the policy of taking five of the island's 11 libraries out of direct council control. "Because it's like post offices, once they're gone, they're gone and you end up talking about what you could have done."

Like every council, the Conservative-run Isle of Wight has had to make cuts and agree priorities. "We are in a financial climate where councils have got to make choices, got to save money, but if we can preserve services in a different way then the community can live with that because they are not daft, they can see what the pressures are when we've got absolute priorities like adult care and child care," said Stewart.

He argued that the sceptics had been largely won over. The community libraries are busy and it has pulled people together, he said, but that is not to say all libraries should be community-based. "What reassures the volunteer groups is that there is that support of a professional organisation behind them. It has been a two-way process. The permanent staff have learned a lot from the volunteers."

That may be the key. A select committee report last October warned that if councils did not give support and professional resources to community libraries then "they may well wither on the vine and therefore be viewed as closures by stealth".

The Isle of Wight has saved £350,000 by transferring the five libraries to volunteers. Most other councils are having to make savings. According to the Guardian's survey of councils, Manchester is cutting its library budget by 28%, Dorset by 21%, Waltham Forest 20%, Carmarthenshire 16.6%, Wigan 15.8%, Oxfordshire 12% and Southwark 8%, and the pattern is repeated around the country.

The annual survey of libraries last December by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy showed that 201 had closed in 2011-12, compared with 33 the previous year. That means the UK now has 4,265 libraries, compared with 4,612 two years ago.

And the trend is set to continue. The campaigning website Public Libraries News has counted 348 libraries (301 buildings and 47 mobiles) that are under threat, have closed or left council control since last April.

It is not all doom and gloom. A lot of work is being done to make libraries more relevant to the digital age, as well as to keeping them going. Last month the Society of Chief Librarians launched its vision for the future of public libraries with four universal offers – health, reading, information and digital – that it said provided a national approach clarifying what the public should be able to expect from their local library.

Its president, Janene Cox, said: "Challenging times do require innovative thinking and we are determined that services will continue to progress and develop so that libraries can continue to make a difference to the communities they serve."

There remains widespread concern about what the cumulative effect of the closures, described by Joan Bakewell in the House of Lords last month as a "cultural catastrophe", will be. The culture minister Ed Vaizey has promised a report by the end of 2014.