A librarian from Buckinghamshire criticised Council plans to cut down vital services.  

Kari Dorme, a retired Beaconsfield librarian of 30 years, was left shocked, when she picked up a small leaflet at her local library.

The upsetting piece of paper said Buckinghamshire Council was planning to discontinue physical copies of magazines and newspapers at all staffed council libraries, and wanted to get peoples’ views on the matter.

She said: “I’m worried this is all going to happen without people realising.”

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“Local papers, and papers in general, are an important part of our culture.

“It’s not just the elderly, who are affected, but I cite them because they will find it more difficult to go online, but also students.”

During Covid, hard copies of newspapers were removed for “hygiene reasons” at Bucks libraries, “and now we have the opportunity to reshape our provision using digital resources,” said the consultation, which runs from 8 August until September 19.

Having access to free libraries in the UK was invaluable, because in a lot of countries like the US most libraries are not free, Mrs Dorme pointed out.

She added: “We’re going into recession, and they’re being told “just go online”, but it’s not the same experience, especially for the older people, who are going to need a one-to-one session.

“Even if they want to go digital, would they have enough computer screens? And to use those services, you would need to be a library member, but to just sit and read you don’t need a membership.”

She felt the Council tried to pass the changes without scrutiny, especially as the consultation was launched over the school summer holidays – a time when library use tends to be the lowest and less people see the survey leaflets, she said.

The consultation wasn't publicised on social media or the press, as the aim was to target newspaper and magazine users with local posters, a Council spokesperson said. 

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Although libraries were not “a life or death service,” the constant cuts have made the previously best libraries in the country “right on the bottom of the scale, and it’s a shame, because Buckinghamshire is not a poor county, and we’re paying for services,” Mrs Dorme said.

"Hertfordshire libraries are not doing it!" she added. 

Clive Harriss, Bucks Council Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, responded: “The proposals to discontinue hard copy newspapers and magazines have been put forward because of the benefits and popularity of online and digital alternatives.

"We are taking customer’s views and comments in to consideration over a period of six weeks, until the end of September.

“We are trialling Press Reader for newspapers, which offers significant improvements on traditional hard copy newspapers, such as wider scope, more up-to-date content, better accessibility, and no limit on the number of users. Digital magazines are the same plus customers can access titles in other languages or versions for the visually impaired.

“We recognise that not all of our customers are comfortable with digital resources, and want to assure that if hard copies are discontinued, we will organise both training and support to access digital versions, using our loanable tablets.

The consultation can be found here.