Adult learning, including the work of University of the Third Age, is going to take a massive hit as libraries are axed up and down the country, a U3A dossier reveals.

U3A News, the U3A national magazine, asked its readers to report library closures and the effect this was likely to have.  Responses came in from all corners of the country.

U3A chairman Ian Searle says: “The government ought to be encouraging the U3A – it fits all the criteria the Prime Minister outlined yesterday.  It requires no state funding; it is entirely self-created and self-directed. It is a real example of people taking their learning into their own hands.  Our members ask the state for nothing – they fund it themselves, they teach it themselves, they take all their own decisions. Isn’t that what the Big Society is supposed to be about?

“But we do need a level of infrastructure.  We want Britain’s excellent public library service to be available to us, and it is contracting catastrophically.”

A few examples of what readers reported are:

U3A members, and older people generally, will be seriously affected, because many of them rely on public libraries. Among the comments in the dossier are these:

“My wife and I are nearly 80 now, so it will be difficult going the 1.2 miles to the occasional mobile in Liss [if that continues], let alone the 6 miles to Petersfield, or 10 miles to Alton, to the main libraries. And we are fitter than some of the other users.” Alan Orme, Liss Forest.

“Haddenham U3A with 240 members, as a learning organisation, is determined to maintain a visible library service.  Apart from the general use by many members, our book and play reading groups rely on the library.” Peter Wenham, secretary, Haddenham U3A.

“I recently joined U3A, and commenced my retirement last summer by starting a campaign to save my local library from closure.” Karen Johnson, Lewisham.

“Our excellent local library is threatened with closure.  It will particularly affect both my husband and myself because we are both housebound. At the moment a friend collects books for us. At 90 years old I'm not looking forward to a bookless future.” N.R. Dunn, Oxfordshire.

“For our presentations we have for some years borrowed music CDs from local libraries. These have now been withdrawn and are only available on-line.” Brian Harvey, leader of the Music Appreciation Group, Pembrokeshire U3A .