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Suffolk County Council is proposing setting up a charitable trust to run its 44 libraries.
The trust, an Industrial and Provident Society (IPS), would get 95% of its funding from the council and an 80% reduction in property rates, according to a BBC report.
Under the proposal, no library would close although the council is still looking for widespread involvement from local community groups, with libraries expected to generate the remaining 5% of their costs through "efficiency savings" and money-making projects.
According to the Lowestoft Journal, this would be a cost of £100,000 per library.
Around 20 staff posts would be lost under the scheme, which would also cut mobile library visits from once a fortnight to once a month. Suffolk's libraries would cost £6.49m a year under the new proposals, compared to the £9.0m budget for 2010-11, the council said. The council will vote on the proposal next week.