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With library closures a red-hot issue in Wirral and Swindon, MLA chief executive Roy Clare has called for library services to think of a "mixed economy" combining a big central library, smaller branch libraries and much smaller "library link" facilities. Clare told The Bookseller he was also "working" towards organising a conference of local authority chief executives in order to get a better undersanding of how libraries affect people's lives.
A library link is located in venues such as post offices or doctor’s surgeries and offers a range of around 1,500 titles, limited opening hours, and connection with an online service so that residents can order a book to pick up. Clare told The Bookseller: "When Swindon chose to remove a library, they didn’t put anything in its place. Instead of a full-time library, a library link becomes a forward post of your library. It’s recently been adopted by Dudley in the Midlands and Wirral have been in touch with Dudley to talk about it." He added: "I am totally committed to local people having local libraries, but that does not have to be in the pre-existing buildings."
Clare also said he was targeting the chief executives, directors of culture and senior officers of local authorities in an advocacy role. "I am working with them to see how do we get a better understanding of how libraries contribute to peoples' experience - culture, art, a broadening of spirit," he said, adding: "I am working my way towards organising a conference of chief executives."
Following the latest round of council elections, the MLA's regional directors of engagement are writing to new library service portfolio holders to introduce themselves and offer themselves as a source of information, Clare said.