It is only when a service is really threatened you start to understand the value of things. Oxfordshire County Council is learning this with its proposal to close 20 of its smaller libraries.

The saving is a relatively small one — £2m over four years or, as it should more reasonably be expressed, £500,000 a year.

The county probably expected this proposal would meet with some protest but not of the scale that has happened. As it says, the majority of library users visit the larger libraries that are to remain open.

It must have expected there to be greater protest over some of the bigger savings in cash terms such as those to social services and highway maintenance.

We have been struck by the scale of the protest on library closures. We do not recall receiving quite so many letters about any other cuts.

Campaigns to save libraries are springing up across Oxfordshire, and some high-profile names have joined the fight, notably Philip Pullman and Colin Dexter.

To add to the county council’s difficulty, the Government minister responsible for libraries is none other than the Wantage MP Ed Vaizey. He has diplomatically written to local authorities to remind them of their statutory responsibility to provide a library service. Quite how you define the execution of that responsibility is not so clear.

Faced with such a strong opposition to this particular cut, it would be good to see the county council offering some hope to its branch libraries.

We take the point that the council would have to find money elsewhere if these cuts were not to go ahead, but it is also true that the £500,000 figure is only a tiny proportion of its budget.

Council leader Keith Mitchell has said that the council would help groups willing to put some voluntary effort into keeping a library service going in their community.

Without professional help and financial backing, it is difficult to see what most of these groups could achieve.

However, with that sort of help, it may still be possible for the county council to achieve some of its saving but also retain branch libraries in local communities.