And '[o]nly half as many people are borrowing
books as 10 years ago ... lending 20 million fewer books each year,
down from 440 million five years ago to 320 million last year.'
Source:
Libraries will be closed in 15 years, says ex-boss of
Waterstone's in
The Daily
Telegraph.
In the 1980s, libraries spent 18 per cent of their
budgets on books, a figure that has now fallen to nine per
cent.
By contrast, libraries spend 54 per cent of their budgets on staff,
according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accountancy's public library statistics.
Mr Coates says that what the £1 billion-a-year library
service needs is not more money, but for resources to be targeted
more efficiently on improving buildings, longer opening hours and
more books.
Another example of the rule that bureaucracies exist to protect and
promote the bureaucrats' careers: swelling the payroll.
Hat tip to
June
09, 2005: Waterstones: "Libraries will be closed in 15 Years"
at
Rare Book News.