Shropshire Star

Twitter leapt to the defence of libraries after a journalist said they should all be closed

When someone suggested libraries were no longer used people spoke up in their thousands.

Published
(Paul Faith/PA)

A journalist who claimed no-one uses libraries and the books within them should be given to schools has apologised on Twitter after a barrage of criticism.

Andre Walker posted “Dear #Library users, I surrender!”.

More than 110,000 people had responded to his initial tweet to prove that libraries are well used.

Walker had initially commented that “nobody goes to libraries anymore” when tweet quoting How To Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell.

She had asked how to make children from low-income families become readers for pleasure against a backdrop of library closures.

But as thousands of people responded Walker, a columnist for the New York Observer and based in London, issued his white flag surrender.

It included a screenshot of a Facebook post where he wrote: “Dear (and I can’t believe I am saying this) all 110,000 who replied my tweet about libraries, Your sheer numbers have proved the point that libraries aren’t as unpopular as I believed this morning! Please stop replying!!!”

He has since been praised for his “willingness to let your opinion be changed”.

Walker’s turnaround was also welcomed tongue-in-cheek by the Society of Authors which tweeted: “We can’t condone chasing anti-library campaigners through the streets with sticks until they capitulate, but, I mean, it does seem to work.”

Elsewhere, people were just happy to see book lovers unite and continued to school Walker about libraries’ brilliance.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.