Philobiblon

From the Independent:

The future of the British Library as a world-class, free resource is under threat from plans to cut up to 7 per cent of its £100m budget in this year’s Treasury spending round.

They are talking about closing the newspaper archive, ending exhibitions, and charging to use the library itself.

It all looks so ridiculously extreme that you think “this can’t possibly be true” – but then … this is the Blair government. In its death throes it is quite capable of being astonishingly irrational – “this is now a knowledge-based world, the economy hugely reliant on knowledge, so let’s make people pay”.

Please spread the word, and protest!