CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save Dorset’s threatened Libraries claim the county council is spending too much on books.

The Ad Lib (Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries) group says its research has revealed Dorset County Council’s libraries now hold more books than it has shelf space to display them on.

It wants to see the authority rein in its spending on books so it can rethink a proposal to withdraw funding from 20 village and small town libraries in the county.

Ad Lib has put forward its own set of proposals for the future of Dorset’s libraries, which proposes to share the funding cuts across all 34 libraries in the county in a bid to keep them all open.

Chairman Graham Lee said: “We have suggested that to save those 20 libraries, the county council should spend less on buying new books.

“The way we have suggested for making the economies Dorset needs to find has been rejected on the grounds that it would rob the county of the books its libraries need.

“But now we have discovered that, far from being short of books, Dorset has been buying so many there just isn’t room on the shelves for them all.”

Mr Lee said that, despite Dorset County Council’s aim of saving £800,000 off the cost of running its libraries next year, the authority was still planning to spend £750,000 on books in the coming year.

He said: “In these difficult times we think that it is just not necessary to spend so much – and we are book lovers.

“We accept that Dorset has always been generous in what it spends on books and in normal circumstances we welcome that.

“But these aren’t normal times.

“We argue that if cuts have to be made the county would be better off with fewer books than fewer libraries.”

Mr Lee said in Somerset the county council spends just a third of the amount Dorset does and readers are still satisfied with the quality and range of books on offer.

Ad Lib is urging Dorset residents to support their alternative proposal to the county council’s plans by filling in a questionnaire as part of the consultation process currently taking place.

Questionnaires are available from all libraries or online at www.dorsetforyou.com/libraryconsultation2011