AN UPCOMING consultation into the future of libraries across Northumberland is planned to secure services rather than lose them.

This was the opinion of Northumberland County Council’s library services manager Alison Peaden who was leading the Northumberland Libraries Service Redesign programme as she gave a presentation at the latest Tynedale Local Area Council meeting.

Due to start by the end of November, the council will run a 12-week consultation to discover how library services can be better used across the county due to an all-time low of people using traditional book lending facilities.

But Alison allayed fears that the consultation had been instigated as a method of closing all libraries.

She said: “Some times we don’t have the bodies to let people in to our libraries, therefore we need to take a step back and identify priorities the service needs to focus on in the future.

“We are keen to deliver and invest in the offer but all libraries are failing to some extent and we need to look at local needs identified.”

Mrs Peaden reported that similar consultations had taken place in other parts of the country, and Northumberland could benefit from that.

She said: “Northumberland is slightly behind in terms of many other authorities have been through this process.

“I don’t think that’s a bad thing because we can learn from their experiences.”

As part of the consultation, to be carried out by an external company, there will be drop-in sessions at all libraries.

Online and paper surveys will be distributed, while arts-based activities will be held to gauge opinions of young people.