I listened to an interesting little piece on Radio 4 this morning about the purpose of public libraries. It's available on Listen Again here if anyone is interested
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I think libraries still play a crucial role in young people's learning and development - if you head to any public library at just-after-school o'clock, you'll often find lots of children in there exchanging books and getting their reading fix.
They still provide a good way to get youngsters interested in reading and fuel the fire, especially when books are so pigging expensive. I know this summer's "Space Hop" national reading event was popular among young people of my acquaintance.
When I was young, I used to use my local library often, and not just for "pleasure reading" but for school research and so on - the librarians were often really helpful and my local public library gave me my first experiences in independent learning and research.
The question, then, is really whether we still need libraries for adults, and if so what kind of material would best suit the purpose of modern libraries. I believe that the development of libraries in the 19th century had a genuine transformative effect on what used to be called "the lower orders", but there's a question now about whether books are still the way in which people consume culture and whether lending libraries still have a role to play in mass reading. And the answer to both is, I dunno.
I know a lot of local libraries are tansforming into "information hubs", and that's a term so soulless it makes me want to weep for the days of glorious redbrick edifices housing treasured tomes etc etc etc. But nobody builds in redbrick anymore, and maybe nobody over 12 uses libraries for their reading material anymore, either. Should they? Would they if they could? Still dunno.
They still provide a good way to get youngsters interested in reading and fuel the fire, especially when books are so pigging expensive. I know this summer's "Space Hop" national reading event was popular among young people of my acquaintance.
When I was young, I used to use my local library often, and not just for "pleasure reading" but for school research and so on - the librarians were often really helpful and my local public library gave me my first experiences in independent learning and research.
The question, then, is really whether we still need libraries for adults, and if so what kind of material would best suit the purpose of modern libraries. I believe that the development of libraries in the 19th century had a genuine transformative effect on what used to be called "the lower orders", but there's a question now about whether books are still the way in which people consume culture and whether lending libraries still have a role to play in mass reading. And the answer to both is, I dunno.
I know a lot of local libraries are tansforming into "information hubs", and that's a term so soulless it makes me want to weep for the days of glorious redbrick edifices housing treasured tomes etc etc etc. But nobody builds in redbrick anymore, and maybe nobody over 12 uses libraries for their reading material anymore, either. Should they? Would they if they could? Still dunno.
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