British library to charge........did I see that coming.......

Reports in the britsh press and other blogs. One reporter wrote:-

To survive, the library proposes to slash opening hours by more than a third and to charge researchers for admission to the reading rooms for the first time.

All public exhibitions would close, along with schools learning programmes. The permanent collection, which includes a copy of every book published in the UK, would be permanently reduced by 15 per cent. And the national newspaper archive, used by 30,000 people a year, including many researching their family trees, would close.

Well, its not as if learning or having a cultural identity identity seems to matter anymore. It makes you wonder what this country represents, apart from a dirth of reality TV shows and a lack of anything else. Seems a shame the government and British library do not taking into consideration the important of libraries.