Eric,
I think that they have designed modern cities so that no one lives in their hearts any more. It's certainly the case with Manchester and the same with the financial areas of London. Far more profitable to build office blocks than living accommodation. And if you haven't got people, you don't need community centres, which the local libraries are. In a suburb of Bournemouth a friend of mine has the headquarters of the local history society and can put on exhibitions of old photographs, maps and newspaper clippings, and also staged a special exhibition associated with the World War 1 Millenium, all at no cost to the locals.
I can't imagine that happening at the Library of Birmingham where floor space is expensive - and let's face it, the real killer here, on the Council's own admission, are the huge amounts in interest payments. Never having visited it, I don't know what space could be made available, assuming there was the goodwill to do so.
Here in Crete we have a few libraries bursting at the seems with books and any spare space has been commandeered by some local Councils as office space. But we do have a few community centres that we can use, but we have to be prepared to clean them and staff them with our own volunteers. But if we want to sell anything, it's almost a no-no these days as the financial situation has resulted in the tax office almost removing out non-profitmaking status. We're allowed but two fundraising events a year now and then they come down on us like a ton of bricks.
As many of us have said in the past, the old building could have been re-roofed and extended for a fraction of the cost except that the Council would not then find some outfit to lend the money, even at the exhorbitant rates they charge. I'm afraid that the world has changed, but I do worry about the poor citizens who are paying all that interest forever and a day and wondering why. In short, I think we've been around this loop before!
Maurice