British Library Chief Executive Lynne Brindley posted a statement on the library’s website that says the library would make its best case for current funding levels, but “all commentators agree that the current economic climate dictates that this will be a tight settlement.”
Lord Avebury, the Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords who forwarded the briefing paper to the Treasury, said in the January 29 Guardian that serious cuts would be “cultural vandalism,” adding, “It is difficult to fathom the mind of a government that sets out to wreck a world-class public institution.” The paper also states the library has trimmed £40 million in efficiency savings since 2001 and reduced its workforce by 5%.
The announcement has also caused an outcry among writers. Author Margaret Drabble, currently using the library for research, said, “It would be a very great mistake to make cuts. It is a national institution and is used by scholars from all over the world.” Ex–Monty Python star Michael Palin called the library “one of the great storehouses of world culture” that should be “looked after and valued as it deserves.”
Workers at the British Library participated in a 24-hour strike January 31, in what the Bloomberg news service said may be the “biggest walkout by government workers in almost 26 years.” The Public and Commercial Services Union was protesting Treasury plans to cut one-fifth of the civil service by March 2008 in the same public-sector spending review affecting the library budget.
Posted February 2, 2007.