With around 37% of books at Cobbett Road Library taken out by children, you may think it's right that young people are now getting their say on the Labour administration's plans for the future of Southampton's libraries – a 'future' that could well see Cobbett Road Library shut to save £52,000 a year.
Two further surveys have just been made available online to comment on “the transformation of the library service” – one for primary age children, and one for secondary age children.
The council says school and library staff have been asked to publicise the new questionnaires, and to give young people the assistance they may need to fill them out, although they can also be completed from internet-connected homes.
Paper copies will also be available in libraries from next week, the council says.
'Grown up' questionnaire
The original questionnaire for 'grown ups' is accessible from the same council webpage, which has been online since the end of November as part of a 14-week consultation process. You'll need to set aside a chunk of time to complete it as it's pretty detailed; bitternepark.info understands from a freedom of information request that the cost for the council's external suppliers to produce it, and then analyse and report on responses, is expected to be around £26,000.
The deadline for submissions to all surveys is March 6, 2015 – giving just over a month for younger library users to have their say.
You can write in instead
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Some people may be relieved to hear that it isn't necessary to use the council's surveys to comment on the future of Southampton's libraries: it turns out you can simply write an email or letter with your views.
These can be sent to:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Or write to: Consultations, Southampton City Council, 1st Floor Municipal Block, Civic Centre, Southampton, SO14 7LY
Or write by freepost to: SS1018, PO Box 530, Swansea, SA1 1ZL
The council says the results of the consultation process will then be evaluated before any changes are incorporated into the final proposals that will go back to Cabinet in July 2015 – after the election.
Award winning children's author Ali Sparkes will be at Cobbett Road on Sat, Feb 7 with a comic tale of how the library helped her go from struggling reader to professional writer, and there are other kids' activities too - more here.
