I agree wholeheartedly with Ramona Depares (‘The demise of the public library’, Culture and Entertainment, The Sunday Times of Malta, February 16) about the state of the Central Library, as well as some of the branch libraries.

Some of the books, particularly the Maltese ones, are in such a pitiful state that nobody would even touch them. We complain a lot about our students’ poor standard of English and Maltese and that they don’t read enough. I’m not surprised; there’s very little to attract them to our libraries. Even the location is impracticable, especially for senior citizens like myself, to go up and down that hill.

The article highlighted the need to take note of young people’s attraction to modern gadgets, in particular e-books.

So far, I have published five e-books, but are any of them on the Central Library shelves, not to mention the branch libraries?

For years I’ve been complaining about the wretched state of the library in my locality of San Ġwann. Most of the books need replacing. The room is so small, unattractive and inadequate that the books are crammed and there’s no place for a computer to be used by students, a quiet section for private reading or research work or for any sort of storytelling or reading.

I never expected any big changes or improvements but is this state of affairs going to stay with us for the next century?