Consultation
7.Public consultation took place between 22 January and 20 April 2007 on a draft Order in Council prepared during the suspension of the Assembly.  It included meetings with a range of key stakeholders, in particular from the education and library boards.  Twenty four written responses were received.  Following the ending of the consultation process on 20 April, two changes were made to the text in line with comments received.  The main change related to making clearer the government commitment to a continuing free service while allowing libraries, as at present, to charge for certain aspects of the service.  The other change was to increase the maximum permitted size of the Library Authority Board in response to concerns about the difficulties of achieving a quorum.