| Yes, you can't rely just on footfall. As services are increasingly run down, people will use them less, e.g. they're not open when they want them to be. Also, you can't just use loans data as not all users borrow, but use the space/facilities. Libraries are a service that you cannot just measure quantitatively, but think about the real impacts they have on the community. Libraries are there to help educate, to support what kids learn in school, to enable residents to engage in their communities, they can be refuges from less than ideal domestic situations, they are a shared resource we should all invest in. Closing them, and closing them without feeling any guilt about it, is just so typical of an era where we just look at the cost of everything but know the value of nothing. |