[etni] British Council closes its last remaining library in Israel

British Council closes its last remaining library in Israel
Haaretz - December 8, 2006

The British Council is shutting the doors of its only remaining library in 
Israel, two years after moving it to state-of-the art premises in the Malcha 
neighborhood of Jerusalem.

The decision, which follows the closure of the organization's English 
teaching center in Tel Aviv in September, is part of an ongoing 
reorganization of British Council services in Israel and worldwide. Three 
staff members will lose their jobs as a result of the latest closure.

"Israelis have voted with their feet," said Jim Buttery, director of the 
British Council in Israel this week, attributing the closure to the low 
numbers using the library.

"The reason we originally moved [from the library's former site in 
Jerusalem's Baka quarter to renovated premises in Malcha] was to refresh and 
modernize our services to our public and to attract more young people and 
native Hebrew-speakers to the library.

"The increased numbers we'd hoped for have not materialized despite the 
promotion and advertising of the service, and investment in it," he said. 
The library, which lends out British books, videos, DVDs, music CDs and 
magazines and provides information about educational opportunities in the 
United Kingdom, has been open to the public since the early 1950s. According 
to Buttery, numbers using the library have been gradually slipping since its 
membership peaked at 1,300 in the mid-1990s.

(To read the whole article, go to -
http://www.etni.org/news/bc_closes_library.htm )

 

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