Save Our Libraries day live coverage

With more than 400 libraries under threat of closure due to budget cuts, campaigners will today take part in mass read-ins, author events and more. Follow the action here

Tell us about the level of protest in your area with our interactive map

9.45am: Lots of activity about Save Our Libraries day on Twitter, with the #savelibraries hashtag. The hashtag was started by Shropshire ICT lecturer @MarDixon back in January, while she was doing her laundry. It was hugely successful, trending worldwide, with authors Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman joining in. Today, Mar tweets:

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9.24am: Cindy Jeffries, one of the Gloucestershire's "flying authors" has been in touch:

Cindy Jeffries has taken off and is heading for Lechdale library. ETA 9.30.

She will be racing against children's author John Dougherty, writer and performance poet Marcus Moore and author Katie Fforde to visit as many libraries as possible in the county today.

9.20am: Good morning, and happy Save Our Libraries day! With an estimated 100 events due to take place across the country I'll be collecting reports, tweets, audio, pictures and more as campaigners protest against proposed library closures. If you'd like to get involved post a comment in the thread, tweet me @culture_cuts, or email me: theresa.malone@guardian.co.uk.

Lots of authors, including Philip Pullman, Kate Mosse and Mark Haddon will be taking part in author events at libraries today. Billy Bragg will playing live at Charmouth library in Dorset from around 11am, and comedian Phil Ju! pitus is working as librarian for the morning at St Aubyn library in Plymouth. As my colleague Benedicte Page reports:

Campaigners are looking for creative ways to make their point. In Milborne Port in Somerset, a hooded "book snatcher" will descend on the library, stealing books from children and the elderly inside, and leaving them instead with signs that say "illiteracy", "poor life chances", and "social isolation".

At Sheffield central library there will be a "mass Shhh-in", with supporters encouraged to make the traditional librarians' reproof, followed by a rousing three cheers for the library. Campaigners at Sydenham library in Lewisham will release 26 balloons, each one bearing a letter of the alphabet, as a symbol of library's role in supporting literacy. In Gloucestershire, a band of "flying authors" will spend the day racing between every one of the county's 43 libraries.

Find your nearest protest here, and tell us what the level of protest is like in your area with our interactive map.


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