The challenge has gone down to those who are up in arms about the closure of their community libraries: Can you do it yourself?

It could be something taken direct from the pages of Prime Minister David Cameron’s manifesto for the Big Society.

Campaigners have been given a three-month period to come up with sustainable plans to run the closure-threatened libraries in Bradford communities.

Whatever your views on the Big Society, it is perhaps not a bad idea to put ownership of these facilities back into the community.

But that will only work if there is a commitment from those who do not wish the libraries to close to put in the work themselves.

Many of the libraries facing closure are deemed to be under-used and only open for a few hours a week anyway.

If campaigners can come up with sensible plans to keep them open with commitment from local people to devote an hour or so each to staff the libraries, there is no reason why these facilities cannot be kept open.

It is a model that has worked in small villages where shops or post offices have proved commercially unviable, but survive thanks to the work of volunteers.

Perhaps, with communities taking control of some of their own services, there might be a happy ending for these libraries after all.