Report from the Speak up for Libraries Rally

Alan Wylie writes:

I attended the ‘Speak up for Libraries’ Rally on Tuesday 13/03/12 held at the Central Methodist Hall in Westminster.

‘Speak up for Libraries’ is a coalition (a dirty word nowadays!) made up of Unison, The WI, VTFL, CILIP, Campaign for the Book, The Library Campaign and library campaigners Mar Dixon and Elizabeth Ash.

The day started off with watching Ed Vaizey giving evidence to the parliamentary inquiry into library closures on a large screen in the main hall, great joy was had when two of the SOS Brent library campaigners sat right behind him with there bright red sloganed t-shirts clearly on view!

300 or so campaigners then listened to passionate speeches in support of libraries and library staff by;

Alan Gibbons

Kate Mosse

Philip Ardagh

Ian Anstice (Public Libraries News)

Ian Clark (VFTL)

Dave Prentiss

Dan Jarvis (Shadow Culture Minister)

Andrew Coburn (Chair of the Library Campaign)

And others

I with other members of the VFTL team staffed the ‘pop up’ library, shook hands and answered questions from MPs.

At around 2pm the protest moved over to the House of Commons where groups and individuals lobbied their MPs and waved banners outside.

All in all it was a very positive and worthwhile day and will hopefully be used as a catalyst for further action!

Alan Wylie is a Libraries steward at Central Library and a supporter of the Re-elect Jane 2012 campaign