Aberdeen City Council urged to stop the closure of six libraries

Community campaign groups in Aberdeen are calling on the city council to stop the closure of six libraries.

The local authority set its budget earlier this month, with a review of library provisions estimated to save £280,000.

Libraries in Ferryhill, Cults, Cornhill, Kaimhill, Northfield and Woodside are soon to close as a result.

Scottish author Peter May said it was "shameful". The council said many library services were still available.

Some Aberdeen facilities may also close earlier depending on opening hours.

The SNP/Lib Dem administration's spending plans were passed on 1 March.

A partnership statement on Wednesday said: "Sadly, as part of the council being required to save around £47m, the difficult decision was made to close six libraries. The closures are happening on 1 April.

"People will still be able to use our library services at 10 branch libraries in locations across the city, Central Library in the city centre, or via our website."

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (Cilips) - the professional body for librarians - said it could leave the city with the lowest number of library branches per population in Scotland.

And the Scottish Book Trust said it was a scenario that was being seen around the country.

A 'read-in' event took place at one of the threatened Aberdeen libraries on Wednesday afternoon.

Local author Karen Barrett-Ayres and resident Melissa Fowler co-organised it after a petition was launched to stop the closure of the library at Ferryhill.

"Cornhill Library is just a vital resource in our community," campaigner Fiona Meade said. "It's providing, in the most basic form, a warm safe space that people can drop into.

"We have a really huge elderly and disabled population. We've got a council-run retirement home as well, we have a lot of people who are maybe not so tech savvy where being able to visit the library and take out a book is a really important resource to them.

"But it also needs to be close, you've got people who maybe can't travel or walk so far, and to close off their local library means that you're closing off all the facilities of the library to them, the computers, the printers all of these things they may not have access to at home."

Asked how she felt on learning it was closing, she said: "It was just shock, you kind of think of a library as one of those constants in the community.

"You don't ever think that you wouldn't have one. We were just really, really surprised and felt we needed to do something to save our library."

She said jobseekers and students also used the facilities.

"You're introducing children to lifelong learning," she said. "Myself and my daughter, when she was a little bit younger, we were in every week to collect piles of picture books. It's a destination when you have a small child.

"While people say the footfall isn't what it should be or has been due to the introduction of things like digital resources, for people who do use the library there's often no alternative for them.

"They don't have the tech, they don't have a computer at home, they don't have the finances to buy loads of books. For those people, it's invaluable".

Marc Lambert, chief executive of the Scottish Book Trust, said library closures were a pattern seen around the country and he expected to see more cuts this year.

He said: "I understand that councillors have very difficult decisions, and in fact choices, to make that they don't want to make.

"But what is being missed here is not only what a library does for a community but the longer-term benefits of having a library in a community in lots of different areas of life.

"Perhaps the most important thing is an ordinary citizen's access to information, entertainment, instruction and enlightenment."

Crime writer Peter May said closures were "shameful" and that people need a place to go and read.

"It's hugely disappointing and quite shocking in a way," he told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime of the Aberdeen situation.

"It's a kind of comment on our society that we place such little importance these days on libraries and reading and writing.

"I understand local councils have to make budgets balance but I think we do have to look at the bigger picture."