Are library books safe in rush for new media?

It is sad to see the relegation of the newspaper/magazine reading room (and the ceasing of holding back issues) at the Central Library in Wolverhampton.

It has been put out of sight in a crowded and cramped downstairs corner, crammed between bookshelves, no longer with large tables to read papers properly. It is now more akin to trying to read standing up as a commuter "sardine" on a rush-hour train.

All for what? For the reading room to become a place for the use of mobile PC laptops. Marvellous.

A leading academic featured in Brief Lives (the BBC Radio 5 obituary program) last year said he really feared for the future of traditional libraries, of printed text books and newspapers. He refused to use the internet, as it was "not of his era". He foresaw a terrifying future where encyclopedias are replaced by online pure fiction generated by the public, and of blogs (ie populist nonsense).

This mad, headlong rush to satisfy e-media, and the obsession with the 18-to-30 age target demographic and ABC 1s, in dumping the press readers' room, disregards users as a nuisance.

I am sure the newspaper industry (suffering tough times nationally and locally) will be less than delighted at this attitude to the press and the dumping of the long-standing reading room.

Little wonder that on my recent few visits, the once busy and well used reading area was virtually empty, just a stream of people enquiring where the papers had gone. A perfect excuse now to remove the books as well and create a second computer room.

It appears the city librarian, Karen Lees, has forgotten why libraries came into being. No doubt its selected focus group has no interest in the press, newspapers or real news itself.

Stephen King, Leicester Street, Wolverhampton.