Alice Ross – The Guardian – “Authors will join hundreds of protesters in the first national demonstration to protect library services held in London on Saturday, in response to a string of closures over the past five years. The children’s laureate, Chris Riddell, and the former children’s laureate Michael Rosen as well as the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and an estimated 1,800 protesters from across the country will march from the British Library to Trafalgar Square. Riddell, the author of the Goth Girl series, said the threat to libraries amounted to a “tragedy for the literary culture of our country”. He added: “Libraries are cultural hubs that, if nurtured by government, have the ability to transform lives. We must all raise our voices to defend them….”research by the BBC this year found that a quarter of all jobs in libraries had been lost since May 2010 – 8,000 in total. Meanwhile, 15,500 volunteers have been recruited in what a Unite spokesman described as a “deprofessionalisation” of library services.”