Beg, steal or borrow: A united front in the battle to save our libraries

Staff are on the picket lines and more are being balloted for industrial action. Enough is obviously enough when it comes to the vicious cuts to our library services, says David Barnett

Members of Unite and concerned residents picket outside Bradford City Hall to raise public awareness of the cuts to library and museum funding (Neil Terry Photography)

Public libraries have never been more under threat, with cuts to budgets, reduction in staff, closure of facilities, and sites put into the hands of volunteer-run groups. And librarians have had enough.

Staff at Bromley Libraries in London have been on strike since June in protest against cuts and staffing levels. And yesterday, a two-week ballot period at Bradford in West Yorkshire came to an end, with the public service union Unite asking the 50 members of staff to vote on whether they want to press ahead with a strike or industrial action falling short of an all-out strike.

Alan Wylie is a library worker, campaigner and trade union activist with Unison, the other public services body that runs alongside Unite in the UK. “Nobody goes out on strike lightly,” he says. “Especially librarians.” And yet, here we are, with librarians on the picket line in Bromley, and as the votes are counted in Bradford, potentially in West Yorkshire as well.