Librarians insulted

In my letter I posed a rhetorical question: ‘Good people who are trying to save the libraries or scabs who are destroying jobs?’ Nowhere in the letter have I called volunteers ‘scum’, as Debbie Estarbrook fabricates. Perhaps this is what is termed a Freudian slip.

Perhaps Debbie Estarbrook doesn’t understand what a rhetorical question is? She writes: ‘Just like in industry, time moves on and with it a reduction in human resources required.’ Human resources?

Libraries, Ms Estarbrook, are not industry, and ought not to be compared to such for reasons you seem unable to comprehend. These are people’s lives, with hard times ahead staring them in the face: benefit cuts, more high rent increases, etc. ‘ Just maybe the time has come for the Library Service to be put out to private contractors. Only then will the true value of what our volunteers have achieved be appreciated. She evidently wants private contractors to come in and make massive profits (that’s what it is all about) while volunteers carry on as normal.

Many redundant librarians have several degrees and decades of experience, but now it seems anyone who fancies having a go just has to volunteer. Low-paid library staff too have lost their jobs. The Big Society in action! The plain truth is that over time volunteers will dwindle and the solution is unsustainable in the long term.

Steve Nibbs Milton Road Swindon