There will be poetry events in libraries up and down the country on Saturday 6 February to mark National Libraries Day, with campaigners hoping it will also draw attention to the number of libraries facing closure because of government spending cutbacks.

In the West Midlands Liz Berry is reading from her work at Bromsgrove library, and Emma Purhouse and Michael Thomas will create personalised love poems for visitors to take away at Dudley library, while in Lancashire Liverpool poet and presenter of BBC’s Poetry Please, Roger McGough, will perform his Poetry Pie show – tickets have already sold out - at Skelmersdale library.

There’s a county heat of Poetry by Heart, the national competition for pupils aged 14-18 in England to learn and to recite poems by heart, in Jubilee library, Brighton, while in Morpeth library in Northumberland there’s a Poetry Detectives event for children aged five-10, using materials from the Northern Poetry Library, which is based upstairs at the library. At Brighouse library Ben Guilfoyle will be performing, with members of Brighouse library poetry group reading their favourite poems.

Last year, 265 million visits were made to public libraries. This week, the council in Swindon revealed plans to close 14 out of its 15 libraries. The chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Nick Poole, said: “Library staff are heroes every day of the year, and I hope people will visit their library on Saturday 6 February and show their solidarity and support.”