Madam,

We wish to express our concern and disappointment at the proposals by Ceredigion County Council to destroy the Ceredigion County Library Service as reported in your paper last week (‘Libraries under threat’).

Public libraries are essential to a thriving democracy. The value of having free access to a wealth of information and being able to read the creative talents of the finest authors over generations cannot be over-emphasised. And all this under the supervision of experienced, friendly staff. If children have no ready access to public libraries their education and development will suffer. Free access to a wide variety of books is extremely important in nurturing in them a life-long love of reading and literature.

We also live in a digital world with an increasing number of government departments offering on-line access only to their services, but not everyone has access to the internet. How many in Ceredigion have access to fast broadband? Branch libraries provide this service. Siting a van in a side street for half an hour once every two months won’t provide an equivalent service. If the service is cut, we run the risk of an ill-informed society that is ill-equipped to prosper in the ‘information age’.

But ‘Aberystwyth library is safe’ claims your reporter. Obviously, it is busier in Aberystwyth library than Llandysul library because more people live in Aberystwyth than Llandysul! Ceredigion Public Library Service is a county service. When one branch is closed there are repercussions across the county, not least a smaller book stock. Already Tregaron community and school library has gone; and New Quay library is ‘looked after’ by volunteers. Llandysul is now facing the axe and possibly Aberaeron, Lampeter and Cardigan. Goodbye Ceredigion libraries. Ceredigion Library pioneered many aspects of a rural library service, with its balance of branch and mobile provision, and has won acclaim across the UK.

It is generous of the county Council ‘to offer support to anyone wishing to take over a library in their area’. Does this apply to all council functions? Would volunteers with no relevant qualifications or experience be welcome to assume responsible positions within the IT or Education Departments, for example? The council is rightly proud of the prizes won by its public conveniences. Don’t let the public library service go down the pan!

‘Cenedl heb lyfrau, cenedl heb wreiddiau, a’i thynged yw colli’i hunaniaeth.’ ‘A nation without books is a nation without roots, and its fate is to lose its identity.’

Yours etc

William H Howells, Rhyd-y-gof, Penrhyncoch, Aberystwyth; D Geraint Lewis, Nant yr Efail, Llangwyryfon, Aberystwyth.