Tales of a Librarian

Can’t resist a quick post on this… on the BBC news website today there is a story of a bunch of VERY dedicated librarians fighting to keep their library open, by taking their clothes off!!! Made me smile… just hope my employer don’t get any funny ideas if they get into financial hardship!

Hey folks, I came across this article today from the Guardian website (via CILIP Daily news) which discusses the problem of increasing library closures across the United Kingdom. It is fairly critical of the response of culture minister, David Lammy, a self-confessed ‘lover of reading’ and proponent of the recent ‘Love Libraries‘ campaign, which they feel has turned from being highly concerned about the closures, to a more ‘laissez-faire’ position, epitomised by his statement that “communities come and go”.

Many of the points made by this article are all too familiar to many communities, particularly the comment about providing a poor stock of books etc. so that hardly any one uses the library, and then being able to make the case for closure. It seems that all too often, libraries are seen as an easy place from which to save money - however, the amount of the council’s budget spent on libraries is probably tiny in comparison to many other things. I personally, would be very upset if my small local library were to close, as it is in its proximity to the community that much of its strength derives, and its relevance increases. However, being one of the smallest libraries within the area, it would perhaps be the first to go, if the decision to make such cuts was made.

The article also contains one of the most scathing criticisms of the public library service that I think that I have ever heard in my whole life! Supposedly, in the Eighties the Adam Smith Institute denounced the system as one ‘which largely supplies free pulp fiction to those who could well afford to buy it’. Ouch!

It is such a shame that the public library service is seen to be something which is largely disposable, and a place from which the first cuts are to be made. Libraries, IMHO, provide something which is precious to communities, and of relevance to all age groups. It is truly sad when this is overlooked, or worse still, not even recognised in the first place.

p.s. there is a link within the article to a comments feature, which is also very entertaining and well worth a nosy… here is the link if you want to jump straight to it…

Technorati Tags: public library, closures, budgets

Just a quick one to point to an article by author Lionel Shriver on the Guardian website today (via cilip daily news bulletin), in which she explains just how much she loves libraries and how they have been of benefit to her as an author. I had never really thought of libraries providing much benefit for authors (who indeed should perhaps rather that readers bought their books rather than borrowed them) but it was quite nice to read that they are still appreciated.

Hi there, well, hopefully I will be able to find the time to write a bit more on this blog than I have of late, but as I mentioned previously, my mind has been elsewhere over the past weeks, and I seem to be getting more responsibilities at work which has cut down the amount of time I can spend reading and reflecting on things in the workplace. On a brighter note, my broadband should be reconnected in my new house today (haven’t checked yet - fingers crossed) so i will promise to make a concerted effort to read and write more, as I initally intended.

Following this promise, I would like to point out an interesting article, from the Guardian via CILIP Daily News, about the benefits of providing a library to staff within the workplace - i think that this is a brilliant idea in many ways - offering books to employees that are either fiction (to encourage socialising etc.) and also non-fiction (to develop skills, knowledge etc.). Cool. And the stat that 91% of employees say that they would use this kind of facility is really impressive. Perhaps some kind of mobile library could capitalise on this by paying lunch/breaktime visits to various employers throughout the week?

Just been reading this survey done by the ALA (so it’s American based) about usage of public libraries and people’s general attitudes towards them. Walt Crawford, once again, covers the main points made by the post very well, so I will not repeat those here.

One finding that I did find particularly interesting, however, was that when asked whether they felt libraries would no longer exist in the future because everything would be available on the internet, or whether they felt that libraries would still be needed despite electronic information, a whopping 92% felt that they would still be needed.

Pretty good news for us librarians, I guess…

The whole report actually paints a very rosy picture of the way the public views the library and I have to wonder where they found the participants because I am sure that most people do not see the library as quite so important (over a third put them at the top of their list of public services, above such things as schools, parks and roads…. hmmm, i like libraries, but more than schools?). 32% also ranked librarians as the most valuable professionals in their communities - now thats just crazy talk - don’t think i would want a librarian operating on me or rescuing me from a house fire!!!

But have a look over the results for yourself and see what you think…