The refurbished Winchester library building is impressive but the concern of many residents is that the library's book stocks have been reduced significantly over the past ten years.

The Council's duty under the 1964 Act is to provide an improving, comprehensive and efficient public library service to support literacy, reading and the acquisition of information and knowledge. Official statistics and the Council's failure to achieve half of the Public Library Service Standards suggest that Hampshire has much to do to improve its library service to the benefit of local communities.

Your readers may be interested to read the evidence recently submited by both experts and local groups to the Library Scrutiny Committee which is due to report in January 2008. This evidence can be found on the Council's web site.

DWR Clarke, Winchester, Hampshire

It's great to hear more young people are borrowing from libraries but it's not so great if it is at the expense of older generations who want to expand their minds. Learning doesn't sound fun, I know, but I bet that there are so many people out there, like me, who want to read further but cannot, because the library does not stock books anymore, but playstation games and DVDs. I challenge you to go to any library and find the Count of Monte Cristo, the complete works of Shakespeare and any current journals like the National Geographic. Good luck.

Helen PdB, Hampshire, England