A CUP OF STARBOOKS; Plan for coffee shops in libraries.

Byline: BY JASON BEATTIE DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR

STARBUCKS should open coffee shops in libraries to attract more visitors, ministers said yesterday.

Libraries should also allow mobile phones - and even open video games and play rooms - or risk dying out, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham warned.

He said they needed to be more like new-style bookshops with in-store cafes and less like "solemn and sombre places patrolled by fearsome and formidable staff".

Mr Burnham added: "Libraries should be a place for families, joy and chatter. I want to see them full of life, appealing and exciting, with a real sense of joy.

"Learning, literacy and the written word will always be the heartbeat of the service, but much more can be done to make them come alive.

"The IT revolution waits for no one. We need to be sure libraries don't get left behind as e-books, podcasts and film-on-demand take on an ever larger role in learning."

Library attendance is falling, with borrowing down by a third in 10 years.

But libraries campaigner Tim Coates fumed: "This ought to be about getting more books, particularly for children, not turning libraries into fish and chip shops."