On the 23rd of July, local children and their families from around Barnet went to the office of the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Wright. They were there to protest the restructuring of the local library system, a process which started in 2017 and which after being touted as a money saving effort to reduce costs and make libraries more accessible, has in fact cost more than £14 million and lost the jobs of nearly 30 trained staff members.  

This was the second protest around the issue, the first of which took place outside East Finchley Library last winter when the library, which had been closed for months, finally opened again, only to be inaccessible to children for the majority of hours after the school day ended, due to the new self service system. There has been widespread backlash in Barnet against the changes to the libraries, and yet little has been done to address the matter or give it any public attention. So more than a year after the changes were made, it seems like a poignant time to ask what have the changes caused?

Unison, the trade union for Barnet council workers, recently came out publicly against the changes to the library system, arguing that the changes to the system created numerous issues, ranging from the reduction of space in the libraries set aside for studying - space in these tax funded public libraries is now instead privately hired out for up to £78 a month for a desk, to the loss of jobs of staff, who have been replaced by volunteers or automation. As they wrote on their website, ‘the Restructure derives from a perspective that sees libraries as being little more than book collection points, which can be operated in the main through self-service machines. The quality, accessibility, and range of the services that libraries provide are being undervalued and the safety of the public put at risk.’

Undoubtedly the biggest issue created is that under the new self service system, teenagers under the age of 16, the majority of those studying for their GCSEs cannot enter the library without parental accompaniment (and those 16 and over must get their school to sign them a permission slip). It seems incredibly contradictory that a move designed to increase the numbers using the libraries would restrict some of those who use them most from entering. Sahr Kamanda, who goes to The Compton School, said at the protest in the summer “I’ve recently got back my GCSE options – now I need to put in hard work. I was hoping I could do it at the library but I’m under age and I can’t get in most of the time. And they’ve got rid of the study space too.” These changes have been widely criticized and protested, but nothing has been done to fix the situation. The new system also makes libraries inaccessible to older people, who benefitted from the help of the librarians, and some of whom find the new pin code system too difficult, discouraging them from entering what used to be a community space. The Barnet Summer Reading Scheme, intended to encourage primary school students in the area to read more has also suffered, with participation figures decreasing from 4,000 in 2016 before the changes, to 1,500 when self service was put in place.


Barnet Council themselves admitted that the libraries would be adversely affected by these decisions, stating “The reduction in staffed opening hours will mean less support available in the library to get advice, information and to utilise the resources in the library. This will have the biggest impact on those who may require support to make best use of services at static library sites or are less able, or confident at using libraries without library staff support” The purpose of libraries is to be a public space for those in a local community to gather and learn, with access to books and to the support and experience of librarians who can share their love of reading with those who come in. The current system in Barnet reduces libraries to a commercialised, inaccessible, unwelcoming environment, in the name of saving less money than was spent on the restructuring. We cannot forget how unjust this is, and should applaud and join local children who are fighting for what they deserve out of their public spaces.