A LIBRARIAN'S nightmare vision of a future without books and dominated by computer technology is outlined in the annual report on Pendle's library service.

Divisional librarian John Hodgkinson, said libraries could end up in the middle of a struggle between page and screen if the doomsday vision was to be believed.

"Most librarians would not subscribe to such a pessimistic scenario," he said in the 1995/96 report. "We have taken the view that new forms of electronic communication need to be embraced because they give more up-to-date information than was previously possible. We have seen information technology as a means of supplementing, not replacing, the book and reading.

"In last year's report I wrote that I feared for our future if we did not give people a decent supply of books and if we did not open at times convenient to them. "At the end of 1994/95 we were unable to purchase any books between December and March, which meant that virtually no new titles were added to the stock for the first few months of 1995/96. This year we also reduced the size of our resource fund by over £500,000 and reduced opening hours by up to ten per cent.

"Throughout the year we have made strenuous efforts to encourage current and new readers, but there is a limit to our resourcefulness in the face of these large scale reductions."

A survey of people using libraries in Nelson, Barnoldswick, Earby and Wheatley Lane, confirmed users wanted more new titles and improved opening hours. On average two out of three people thought the opening hours were good or very good but almost all (98 per cent) felt staff helpfulness was good or very good.

The libraries' total bookstock fell from 155,610 to 153,427 while book issues were down almost 110,000. Lending was down at all eight libraries in Pendle apart from Trawden, which saw a 37 per cent rise in the number of books lent to 10,934.

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