"Libraries [in Britain], the largest providers of free access to books, continue to face government cuts and the threat of closures...." With budgets decreasing, and costs of materials (books, etc.) and staff increasing, the end result is libraries buying fewer books (or more copies of bestsellers and less of everything else, as is happening where I work), which is also to the detriment of authors and publishers. Better that libraries and publishers work together in their own best, mutual interests.