I VISITED Bromley Central Library to find there were no librarians to check your books in and out but a self-service system.

It has all the charm of a supermarket checkout without the possibility of exchanging pleasantries.

I was told the staff had been put on other duties, which appeared to be explaining how the system works.

A major problem is having registered the books and the deadline for return, what happens to this slip during the ensuing weeks?

It could be stuffed in a drawer, left in a pocket or lost.

No doubt you can contact the library with the codes of the books borrowed so staff can find out the book return date, a step backwards in the running of an efficient library.

The decision to make the library self-service is yet another example of society being slowly isolated from human contact.

Such examples include self-service at supermarkets, ordering your groceries online and children spending countless hours in isolation playing computer games.

Children are no longer allowed by their parents to go out and play.

There is an increase in school lessons being given one to one via a computer and people work from home via computer.

Library self-service is another example, albeit small, of a future of increasing isolation of society.

JOHN HACKETT

Haxted Road

Bromley