Sir – In last week’s edition, Mr Penn’s letter echoed those from Sylvia Vetta and myself in past weeks, alerting those of us, of many ages, to the likelihood of a severly curtailed library service and the possibility of some closures.

I made the point that, in order to maintain a core service, volunteers could quickly be trained to carry out the simple tasks of book exchange and reshelving returned books.

Are the many thousands of library users willing to help to maintain the service in some way, or are they willing to face closures? Recruitment of such volunteers could start within Library Friends and within such established groups as the WI, Townswomen’s Guilds and the U3A.

I feel that tentative recruitment ought to start now, in order to alleviate hiatus when the crunch comes.

Martin Sheldon, Headington Quarry