Early next year the Hove Central Library will have to be closed for about six months for necessary structural changes.

This is bound to influence the habits of regular readers and have a detrimental effect on the degree of readership.

Meanwhile, the residents of Brighton have had their habits interrupted with the temporary, if extended, location of their central library at Preston Circus, pending the completion of the new library next year. It is likely that this might also reduce the number of regular readers.

Both of these developments are costly and come at a time when the libraries charity Libri, as a result of its national survey, is so concerned with the alarming 33 per cent drop in readership since 1995, it is forecasting that, unless urgent measures are taken, the library service will cease to exist in 20 years' time.

I should hate to think that, at great cost, we might be left with two costly white elephants noted only for their architecture.

What measures are in place to try to buck this alarming trend?

-Reg G Jenkinse, Hove