theguardian – “A further 340 public libraries could close in the next five years if the government does not act urgently to halt drastic funding cuts, the head of a leading library organisation has warned, which would equal the number of closures witnessed by the sector over the past eight years. Nick Poole, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals (Cilip) said: “We have already lost 340 libraries over the past eight years and we think that unless immediate action is taken, we stand to lose the same number over the next five years.  Official figures revealed last week showed that UK libraries had lost £25m in their budgets in just one year. As 2017 is not an election year, Poole said, Cilip was anticipating that “local politicians will try to get library cuts through” over the next 12 months.”