Brent library closures: Interesting memoir and analyis

"... Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay. ... It’s not just a matter of free books. A library is a different kind of social reality (of the three dimensional kind), which by its very existence teaches a system of values beyond the fiscal. ... We like libraries. Can we keep our libraries? We need to talk about libraries. Pleading, like children. Is that really where we are?" The North West London Blues (Zadie Smith, New York Review of Books)