A consultation into the future use of libraries in Worcestershire launched yesterday.

Residents have been asked to give their views on how libraries can evolve to offer modern services for people and ensure value for money.

Worcestershire's library services have faced change as finanical pressures have grown on the county council.

The council says it has made considerable progress to modernise services to ensure value for money with a Libraries’ Transformation programme launched in 2011, which has seen more than £3.7m of efficiency savings made.

This has been achieved through community support for libraries, sharing library buildings with other local services, making changes to the Mobile Library service, streamlining staff and management structures, investing in self-service technology and modernising stock buying and delivery.

Councillor Lucy Hodgson, cabinet member for Communities, said: “We want as many people as possible to take part in the consultation.

“We want to hear the views of residents on suggested priorities for each library and ideas they may have about which services could be delivered by individual libraries. Some of those ideas will help to shape our final proposals.”

One update will be the introduction of Open Libraries which use self-service machines, meaning people can still access all services at their local library and they can stay open for longer.

The consultation, which can be found on the county council’s website, launches on Monday and runs until February 2. A final decision on the future of libraries will be made in spring 2019.

The consultation is available at worcestershire.gov.uk or paper copies are in the county's libraries.