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Thanks for passing on this thought provoking article. My reactions while reading it, like my reactions too many newspaper articles, blog posts and twitter comments that I have read recently, are mixture of nods of agreement, smiles and head shaking. In this article what sparked most reaction were the comments about the “temple of learning model”. I worry slightly when people suggest we have to be one thing or another. Yes libraries have an important learning and information role, but we also have a very important leisure role. The leisure role should not be undervalued or decried. If we put all our eggs in the learning and information basket libraries will make a few people happy, become irrelevant to others and alienate the escapist reader. To put it bluntly they will become elitist and die. For libraries to survive they need to reflect on and meet the needs of their communities. Their provision must offer a balance between the “temples of learning” and the “escapist’s paradise”. That balance should shift according to the needs of the community, and surely that is part of the joy of libraries that they are all different in content and feel? Let’s not throw out Plato for Lee Child but equally let’s not throw out Lee Child for Plato.