This announcement shows that the Government is actively promoting a policy of volunteer run libraries even though it (and ACE) have still not developed models to ensure that such libraries are sustainable. The Library Campaign recently raised a number of very serious concerns about such libraries in its Briefing Paper (attached)  submitted to MPs and Peers.

Many volunteer groups are being forced to take over their local libraries to save them from closure and are being effectively "cast off" without proper support or guidence. These groups have often been directed to The Library Campaign and the volunteers who run Little Chalfont Library for advice. The volunteers who run the Little Chalfont Library say that they been contacted by more than 130 groups seeking help (the Cabinet Office has recently stepped in and given them some funding to provide such help!).

The MLA before its demise did raise a number of issues related to volunteer groups taking over public libraries but many of these remain unresolved. Neither the DCMS or its strategic agency, ACE, which is charged with "improving and developing" the service, has properly assessed the impact of this policy, not least on rural and deprived communities. They now seem to be trying to push the problems to the 151 library authorities to resolve.

The public library service is being destroyed by Government and Arts Council England and replaced by a few "super" libraries in major cities and hundreds of book exchanges run by volunteers.