How do you distinguish social capital from common-or-garden capital?

Is it social capital to threaten to lock people up so as to force them to give you money so you can spend it on whatever you think would build trust and reciprocity? If they don't like it, they'll be bound together - in handcuffs to a constable - is that it?

I like libraries and have used them all my life. But I don't have any illusions but that what's happening is that some people who would rather spend their money on something else are being forced into paying for books for my satisfaction. I don't pretend that some greater good is created by their having been compelled to pay, that could not have been created by the voluntary payments of all those who want to enjoy library services. I don't pretend to know that the benefit they have been forced to forego would not have created greater value as judged by them, or by the rest of society.

There certainly will be a lot of debate in England re: library closures in the very near term. This should show exactly the level of support for them.
My local library is very busy 6 days a week. Similar to the stats in this article, I would guess that it would be one of the busiest public spaces in the area outside of shopping centres.
Governments will mess with them at their peril.

I think that libraries are great places, but I also think that
their use by date is already there, based on technology.

With the advent of the Ipad and many similar tablets, then a huge
online library, with people like Google involved, it will become
far easier, cheaper, and more practical to simply download the
books of interest.

It saves all that paper, saves having to wait for a book, it
can be kept for future reference, etc.

So I'd say that the days of the librarian are numbered.

Yabby, I see your point about easy, cheaper and so forth, but I don't agree. To me books have a life of their own. I collect as many as I can afford (or inherit from family and friends), and there is so much more to them than just print. My old books and magazines look, feel, smell and I believe read differently to those that are only <10yrs old. To me, reading from a computer screen is terribly sterile.

And so too for my children who I take to our local library usually every Sat morning. They enjoy the drive, seeing the familiar faces and talking to the librarians, and the pleasure of just wandering past walls of books, and picking here, dabbling there. A library is very much more than seeking information. Electronic delivery is soleless and passive, so because it doesn't engage your senses like holding a book does, I believe you tend not to learn or remember as much.

I hope there will always be a place for a library.

If libraries go

Communities would suffer

Loss of intellect

Good on the people of Stony Stratford for fighting to keep their library services. It is an example of what our government might expect should library services be reduced.

Perceptions of government waste is in the eye of the beholder but library services have a positive impact and benefit for communities. I remember taking my little ones to the story time mornings to be followed up by picking out books to read and watching their excited faces. I must admit I have not been to a public library for a few years now having access to many documents and publications at work, access to a departmental library and now tend to buy books (new and secondhand) that I would like to read or swap books with friends and family. Many later get donated to Lifeline or similar.

But library 'attendance' where I live is high. The internet and downloads cannot replace the reading of a real paper book IMO, but each to their own.

It will be up to citizens to determine what services they want for their tax dollar, and to fight to keep libraries going should they be threatened. Sometimes the public lose the fight and sometimes they win.