Dear Sir, Birmingham seems poised to make the same mistake with its new library as West Bromwich with its notorious The Public at huge cost to the taxpayer - namely investing in an iconic and expensive building without giving the least thought to its content and likely function over the next fifty years.
Books can now be downloaded onto easily read devices and much archival material is now also available over the web.
Material that, for research or historical investigation, needs to be available in its original form and should be held in a depository located close to road and public transport links for easy access.
Such a building could be utilitarian and would certainly not cost the £193 million that is proposed for the library.
I’m sure most Birmingham taxpayers could think of many better ways of spending this money or, better still, not spending it at all.
Bill Church
Malvern
