Local authorities are overdue in giving responses to a working party investigating the future of public libraries.

The party was set up by the Council of Ministers, to look at all public library provision, after it stepped in to offer financial support to the Family Library, a charity.

The working party is chaired by Clare Barber (MHK for Douglas East) who told Tynwald this week: ’Information was requested from all of the island’s libraries to start to build a picture of the need for public libraries and also what other services, aside from loaning books, that those libraries either already do or could provide in future.

’Very few responses to this request have been forthcoming.

’There is simply not enough information to form a realistic picture of what access to library services looks like, their purpose, the wider provision of library services across the island and the use and cost of libraries.’

She said the working party received regular updates from five libraries, but only one of those was a public library. The others included the Family Library, a school and reference libraries from within the government sector, such as the Manx Museum.

The lack of response from public libraries, she said, meant that the working party had missed its deadline to bring a report back to Tynwald by December, and was instead aiming for May, to make further attempts to obtain information from local authorities, before making any recommendations on future services.