Shropshire libraries get £19,000 Wi-Fi upgrade

Arts Council England has awarded Shropshire Libraries the funding to develop or upgrade Wi-Fi facilities in its library branches.

Councillor Steve Charmley, cabinet member for business and culture, described the announcement as "exciting".

The funding will mean the installation of Wi-Fi in libraries that currently have no Wi-Fi provision, as well as upgrading existing Wi-Fi where it does not meet the recommended standards. According to the Arts Council, the aim is for public libraries to be providing the "most widespread opportunity" for people to connect to digital services via Wi-Fi free of charge on their laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Work on the Wi-Fi roll-out is set to begin shortly, with installations likely to take place early in the New Year.

Councillor Charmley said: "This is exciting for the county's libraries and it demonstrates the changing way people use libraries. This is good news.

"Even in the last 10 years people would come to the library to use the computers whereas these days people tend to come in with their smartphones which have 3G or 4G as well as their tablets.

"Libraries aren't just about books anymore. It's good to see libraries adapting to people's needs."

Councillor Charmley said the plans, which have have been pushed by the Government and administered by the Arts Council, will mean libraries that have Wi-Fi will have their current facilities upgraded while those that have no Wi-Fi will do in the coming months.

This news comes a week after Shropshire Council's Cabinet voted to offload 12 of the county's smaller libraries to community groups.

Organisations are currently being sought to take over the libraries at Albrighton, Bayston Hill, Broseley, Cleobury Mortimer, Church Stretton, Ellesmere, Gobowen, Much Wenlock, Pontesbury, Shawbury, Shifnal and Wem.

The management of Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, and Whitchurch libraries are also set to be reviewed.

Councillor Charmley said that closing libraries is the "last thing" Shropshire Council wants to do.

He added: " It's not the way we want to do it. Closing them would be the easy option.

"We've pulled the libraries into two pots, we've got the bigger libraries in market towns who we are looking to work with community groups and other organisations, and the smaller libraries

"A good example of one of our bigger libraries is Oswestry library which has become a hub and it does demonstrate that libraries aren't just about books anymore.

"We're moving more of our customer service points into the libraries which is driving increased use."