Kensington Central Library has less and less books every time I go. It's like the ruins of Pompeii; evidence of civilisation, you can see the walls, the layout of the rooms, the street patterns but the people, the artifacts, they're gone.

There are now so few books on the shelves, I almost imagine them huddling together for warmth when the lights have been switched off and the last librarian has left for the day.

This is desertification of the library - it's not restricted to Central Library either, the other branches are withering on the vine too - and it's happening because of budgetary pressures.

I do worry that this might lead to branches actually being closed. Losing a library does n't generate the emotional ripples of a hospital being closed, but they are therapies in their own right, valuable and inspiring, places of education, of hope, of simple enjoyment, and we need to protect them for that.