The Fragile Future of the Public Library: A Disaster or an Opportunity

摘要

Despite the relative good health of public libraries in many countries around the world, the status of public libraries in the UK can only be categorized as a continuing disaster. Many UK local governments, faced with slowly increasing or declining revenues and rising costs for services, have substantially cut or eliminated funding for public libraries. During 2017, there was a net loss of 127 public libraries and 712 full-time employees in England, Scotland and Wales (Cain 2018).