Letter: Shelf life

I READ Michael McCarthy's generally patronising and disparaging report on public libraries ('Chapter closes as readers opt to buy rather than borrow', 31 October) with interest. The Library Association's survey does not worry us too much here in Dudley where more than half the population voted with their feet last year and went to their local library.

Nor do we mind if our users include pensioners and 'young people continuing their education'. Libraries are not in competition with booksellers - we help create their market.

Unfortunately none of the booksellers mentioned in the article has a branch in the Black Country (which has a population of more than a million) apart from Dillon's academic bookshop in Wolverhampton.

However, if 300,000 affluent middle-class folk want to spend pounds 25 on Baroness Thatcher's memoirs I say good luck to them. That means less pressure on the few copies we can afford to provide for our 18 libraries in Dudley.

D F Radmore

Borough Librarian

Dudley