I visit the public library on a monthly basis.

What I need to know is, out of the funds voted for public libraries, how much is spent on the acquisition of new books?

I have seen very few new books in the last 20 years. Recent additions are usually discarded books of English Public Libraries kindly donated to us after they have been deemed unfit for the English public.

The Education Division invested millions of euros on the physical upgrading of schools; other millions are given as handouts to university students to be spent mainly on cars, mobile phones, weekend partying etc, yet it did not find the funds to buy a few decent new books for the public libraries.

This holds true for the University Library which is starved of recent publications so sorely needed by serious students.

Joseph Grech

Gzira