Just getting on my soap box for a moment
Oh man, so angry. I've been reading a lot about the local library closures recently. It's a bigger issue than I can get into on the last 10 minutes of my lunch break, but I just read this article in the Guardian and couldn't help but read the comments. I know, I know, I brought the anger on myself through my own thoughtless actions, but this is seriously one of the comments:
"Do deprived areas really need libraries? Do they have any interest in reading in these communities. I would have thought a pub would be more appropriate."
Seriously. I know that it might be someone deliberately stirring up the comments, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I know full well that there are lots of people out there who seriously think like this. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider, and so many of the services that are being cut to save money are going to affect the poor the most. "What's the point of computers in libraries," people say. "Everyone has computers and the internet at home these days." No, they don't. Not everyone can afford to spend £1 on a book in a charity shop, let alone a fiver on a book from Amazon. Some parents can't read, or at least read English - what are their kids supposed to do when all the libraries are gone?
The loss of most mobile libraries is also terrible. Older people especially rely on such services and with the rural bus routes also being cut this will mean that, for a lot of them, they will be stuck in their village with little or nothing to do. This isn't just me pulling this out of thin air, I have read interviews with older people in affected areas.
I had the quintessential middle class childhood, and we still used the library all the time. The amount I read, even then, would have cost my parents a lot if they'd had to buy all the books (we used to take an extra holdall on holiday, just filled with books for me and my mum. Dad and Jill would read one or two books each over the fortnight), and I suspect the getting out of the house aspect of going to the library was a brilliant thing for her too.
Having volunteers work in libraries is all well and good, and I think probably necessary, but they can't be in charge of everything, it's just not possible. So much will be lost if professional librarians/experienced library workers are taken out of the public libraries, and once they're gone it's highly unlikely they'll be back.
Seriousness over with, now I must go and plan a display around Tom Stoppard's Arcadia
"Do deprived areas really need libraries? Do they have any interest in reading in these communities. I would have thought a pub would be more appropriate."
Seriously. I know that it might be someone deliberately stirring up the comments, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I know full well that there are lots of people out there who seriously think like this. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider, and so many of the services that are being cut to save money are going to affect the poor the most. "What's the point of computers in libraries," people say. "Everyone has computers and the internet at home these days." No, they don't. Not everyone can afford to spend £1 on a book in a charity shop, let alone a fiver on a book from Amazon. Some parents can't read, or at least read English - what are their kids supposed to do when all the libraries are gone?
The loss of most mobile libraries is also terrible. Older people especially rely on such services and with the rural bus routes also being cut this will mean that, for a lot of them, they will be stuck in their village with little or nothing to do. This isn't just me pulling this out of thin air, I have read interviews with older people in affected areas.
I had the quintessential middle class childhood, and we still used the library all the time. The amount I read, even then, would have cost my parents a lot if they'd had to buy all the books (we used to take an extra holdall on holiday, just filled with books for me and my mum. Dad and Jill would read one or two books each over the fortnight), and I suspect the getting out of the house aspect of going to the library was a brilliant thing for her too.
Having volunteers work in libraries is all well and good, and I think probably necessary, but they can't be in charge of everything, it's just not possible. So much will be lost if professional librarians/experienced library workers are taken out of the public libraries, and once they're gone it's highly unlikely they'll be back.
Seriousness over with, now I must go and plan a display around Tom Stoppard's Arcadia