About a year after the collapse of the Soviet system, which now seems a lifetime ago, domestic matters led me to visit Poland, during which time I had the pleasure of staying with some family relatives on my partners side. I soon learned that the lady of the house had recently been made redundant from her job as a librarian and I naturally enquired as to why that was so. I was duly informed that her library had been closed down as part of the new wave of capitalist austerity measures. Ah I hear you say how very familiar. The interesting thing in this little story is not so much the closure of the library depressing as that is, but the type of library that had been forced to close.

It was, it transpired, not a community library as we know them, but in fact a work-place library, which I learned were a common feature of the socialist system in Eastern Europe. With the reintroduction of capitalism, these worker friendly amenities were now considered surplus to requirements. No immediate profits to be made from them so they would have to go. And here we are, some twenty years later and the very same logic is forcing the imminent closures of hundreds of libraries across austerity Britain.

Of course something absolutely fundamental has changed over those past twenty years, a change as monumental as the development of the printing press itself. I refer of course to the near ubiquitous use, in the developed world at least, of the internet. Despite our many fond and nostalgic memories of a trip to the local library, and despite our natural anger at the Tory vandalism that has necessitated local councils even contemplating such closures, the painful question that must be asked has the old community library been made redundant in the new scintillating age of the World Wide Web? Is the defence of the small local library a noble but doomed Luddite reaction in the face of the new technology?

The answer for me is emphatically no, but I am equally emphatic that the days of the quaint little back street library boasting a few thousand ageing texts is fast becoming an historical relic and probably a good thing too. What is required instead are well equipped, appropriately located, multi media centres with highly motivated staff that are fully trained for the digital age. One such library, centrally located in the town centre, is worth a dozen antiquated, outmoded old libraries scattered about in the back streets of equally run down, dilapidated suburbs.

I came across one such super modern library in the very centre of Norwich, and what a pleasant experience it was. It was light and breezy with an open for business modern shopping mall feel, with clearly designated and well staffed information desks and a youngish clientele that, at a stroke brushed away the fusty, romanticised nonsense of the twentieth century version. Here was a library fit for purpose with internet terminals throughout and an overwhelming sense that it was an integral part of the knowledge revolution. Yes, there were books, but these were just one piece of the information jigsaw. And the question that kept hammering away in my brain why if you were in search of up-to-date information would you plough through rows and rows of ageing texts when the all-powerful internet terminal can bring it all to your fingertips in a moment?

The other attractive feature of the Norwich City Centre library were the cafes, bookshops and art galleries on the lower floor of the complex. Going to the library was no longer a rather laborious chore with a wholly unpredictable outcome. It was now a highly pleasant experience with a high probability of completing a successful mission.

The Norwich City Council is obviously not alone in travelling down the modern library road. Other councils have successfully combined the information super highway with entertainment and socialising. The Willesden Library in Brent comes to mind where a modern library complex offers cinema, cafes, galleries, community meeting rooms and a well stocked bookshop all under the same roof. So what should be the fate of the old fashioned smaller, suburban libraries that we have grown up with?

The London Boroughs of Ealing and Hillingdon might have part of the answer. Both have opted to partially integrate their library services with their local sports centres; one as a small taster library and the other as a much larger concern. This is an interesting development. Are the two activities naturally compatible? It is certainly an imaginative way of cross promoting the two services with the possible outcome of a more literate and/or knowledgeable sporting community with a healthier and fitter reading community. Every local council might consider such a development where every town should be able to boast a modern sporting and cultural complex an entire community hub – where leisure, health and education freely compliment each other, and the associated infrastructure like cafes, toilets, heating, maintenance and security are shared. It would, in the long term, be a money saver for the cash strapped councils.

Closing libraries has all the ugly connotations of fascist book burnings and other acts of cultural and religious vandalism, but if approached imaginatively, all the qualities of the 19th & 20th century library can be wedded to the needs of the 21st century. The wholly legitimate argument against library closures will be made that much stronger if the campaign imbues the principle: better fewer but better.

And, when all the shouting and campaigning is over, we should ask ourselves what exactly is a library for. Make no mistake, a library is a vital piece of weaponry in the ongoing struggle against the global forces of reaction. By this I mean those religious zealots who would have us return to the dark superstitious days of feudalism where learning was feared and punished severely. Even today, in what is sometimes regarded as the most sophisticated society yet devised by man the United States – there is a growing clamour for a rejection of science and a return to religious obscurantism. The scientific teaching of evolution, if these zealots get their way, is to be replaced by some pre-Enlightenment babble about religious creationism and blood curdling rantings about heretics, infidels and the coming Armageddon. And it’s not just the Iranian Mullahs and al-Qaeda adherents that spout this stuff. It’s coming from within the very heartlands of modernity.

Faced with this blood-curdling religious backlash against a scientific understanding of our universe, the humble library is more important than ever. To close this piece, we might do well to contemplate Christopher Hitchens concluding remarks in his powerfully damning refutation of all things religious, God Is Not Great. The Hitch writes:

Above all, we are in need of a renewed Enlightenment, which will base itself on the proposition that the proper study of mankind is man and woman. This Enlightenment will not need to depend, like its predecessors, on the heroic breakthroughs of a few gifted and exceptionally courageous people. It is within the compass of the average person. The study of literature and poetry, both for its own sake and for the eternal ethical questions with which it deals, can now easily depose the scrutiny of sacred texts that have been found to be corrupt and confected. The pursuit of unfettered scientific inquiry, and the availability of new findings to masses of people by easy electronic means, will revolutionise our concepts of research and development. P283

Every defence and future expansion of the library network should be seen as a vital defence of the collective body of human knowledge and as such, a bulwark against feudal, religious reaction.