Maggie Roberts outside the library in Archway

A LIBRARY user has accused Islington of being “ageist and discrimina­tory” after it removed all physical newspapers from its libraries.

Maggie Roberts, a retired journalist, says she has been using Archway Library in Highgate Hill for 30 years, but was appalled after cuts to the service were brought in by “stealth” under the guise of Covid.

“They got rid of newspapers during the pandemic, due to hygiene reasons, but when every­thing opened up again, they just never brought the newspapers back,” the 73-year-old said.

She has since been told it was a decision taken after the library service made a £30,000 cut.

She added: “Older people are being digitally excluded because a lot of people can’t use the technology. Papers are also a physical thing. It’s a work of art. It takes a bit of design.”

Because the complaints process in Islington has been exhausted, she is now planning to take it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

In a letter this week, the council’s complaints team said they did not uphold Ms Roberts complaint, adding: “I have been advised that library staff are there to provide one to one assistance, to help older adults with specific questions and problems.”

Ms Roberts argued Islington had behaved hypocritically for celebrating the elderly Irish men and women who came to Archway decades earlier by naming the newly created Navigation Square after them, but didn’t want to keep buying in the Irish paper for them at the library.

“Libraries come up with all this claptrap about ‘We want libraries to be centres for health, well­being and safety and warmth,’ and then they go and do that to all these old geezers,” she said. “To me, it is really harsh and insensitive and inconsid­erate, and it’s ageist and it’s discriminatory.”

An email to Ms Roberts from Councillor Janet Burgess details how head of libraries Michelle Gannon acknowledged newspapers had been removed without any consultation out of a need to make savings.

The email, dated January 30, said: “Your constituent has said that she has never seen any notification about this [the axing of papers] – this is true in that we stopped taking newspapers due to Covid and never reinstated them. Events overtook us.

“However, since 2019 when we stopped taking all printed magazines, our long-term plan was to do the same for newspapers. My suggestion is that we should now get some publicity done and display it and continue to promote the online offer as well as staff support to access the resources.

“Any decision to reintroduce printed newspapers would mean that we would have to reduce spending on other areas of stock.”

A council spokesperson said: “Providing free online access to newspapers has enabled our libraries to give access to a very large selection of newspapers – including papers in foreign languages – which can be read simultaneously by a large number of people.”

He said librarians would be on hand to assist users in going online, and pointed to a collaboration with outside agencies who were helping “excluded residents”.

On April 3 users can attend Central Library in Highbury at 11am to learn how to get access to online newspapers.