Public libraries have been around for nearly 200 years. They are an enduring public institution. In the United Kingdom (UK) they enjoy similar levels of public affection as the National Health Service (NHS). Like the NHS, they are a public service that is available to all free and at the point of need. They have survived two world wars and numerous economic downturns. They have demonstrated resilience and the capacity to change in order to both improve and survive. They are used by millions of people every year. They have changed countless lives. But now they are facing an existential threat. Neoliberal politics and austerity economics have combined to challenge the very premise of why public libraries exist. They are a public good that no longer fits into a world order which values everything solely in monetary terms. Even when they make an economic argument for their existence – and it is easy to demonstrate the return on investment that they generate – this is dismissed by politicians who regard ever-shrinking public sector budgets as finite and rationed. In this environment, how can a public library possibly be more important than a hospital or a school? They are a low-hanging fruit that has been plucked in England for nearly 20 years. And there is no end in sight to this senseless harvest, whichever political party is in power.

Public libraries are now subjected to the type of intellectual scrutiny and economic logic that prevails on the television series Dragons’ Den. It would be a brave person who tries to pitch the public library to the kind of hard-nosed business people who make decisions in the Den, in Whitehall and in local councils.