HAS anyone else noticed the decimation happening to Stourbridge Library's general collection? I have been using this library perhaps two or three times a week for over forty years and suddenly, whole shelves are empty - more and more each week.

A member of staff told me, when we go home on Wednesdays, they' come in and go through the books and each week more are removed'. And who are they? The higher-ups'. And why?

They don't tell us anything', she said.

Since the libraries and their books are paid for out of taxes, they are actually the property of the people, and surely if such a major overhaul of the catalogue was being planned, they' ought to have consulted the public, or at the very least informed us of what they intended.

The sorry state of the busiest library in the Borough is now making me feel that I do not want to go in and browse at all. Whole sections, notably history and travel, have become like wastelands.

Why are they' allowed to do this, and how are they choosing which books to discard and which to keep? Many older books are irreplaceable.

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