According to recent statistics almost 60 per cent of us hold a membership card for the local public library and, on average, we make more than five visits a year per head of population.

It is perhaps surprising to find in this modern age when the price of books is relatively cheap, when a wealth of digital information is available to us from our desktops and when we are so starved of time, that use of our public libraries has remained remarkably constant.

Our libraries have, in many respects, reinvented themselves to serve this modern age, extending rental beyond books to video, DVD and audio and capitalising on interest in such things as family and local history.

In 2008/09, lending of books actually increased across the nation’s libraries, fuelled largely by a large increase in the lending of children’s books.

Oxford’s central library was right up there with 670,650 books issued during the year.

The question now is: can our libraries, in particular the smaller ones, survive the onslaught facing them as local authorities, including Oxfordshire, earmark them for cuts.

The list of libraries under threat in this county is a long one. It includes many city branch libraries and a large number in rural locations.

Oxfordshire County Council is seeking volunteer groups to keep these libraries open in what is a first test for David Cameron’s so-called Big Society.

But is it realistic to expect an army of volunteers to come forward to save our local libraries.

Council leader Keith Mitchell said this week he was confident Big Society initiatives would save some but not all libraries.

Even that may be optimistic.

How likely is it that volunteers can step in to provide an alternative to the professional services of librarians? Helping out at a library is one thing, running it is quite another.

There is a huge amount of voluntary work that goes on in Oxfordshire, but many organisations hang by a thread. The biggest threat to them, as we often report, is a lack of volunteers.

Will we suddenly have lots more to keep local libraries going?

We hope to be proved wrong but we suspect there will be only a small number of libraries saved by volunteers with most of them having to close.