Library Day of Action

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Soldato
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http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/save-oxfordshire-libraries-speech-philip-pullman

The public library has long been a immensely valuable part of our society, and now with over 450 of them across the country being threatened with closure people are reminding the government and the councils just how valuable they are. Read ins, speeches and mass withdrawals are planned for this Saturday, if there's one near you then why not go along and show your support? If you haven't been in a while then now is the perfect time to go to your local library and remember what a valuable place it is.

It will be a celebration of literary genius and shared knowledge, with libraries providing an irreplaceable service not only to you and i, but being hugely important in the educational development of a child. If we don't stand up for them then nobody will.
 
I always liked libraries. Shame my local one is bloody rubbish. It's worth it for the movie rental though: same price or cheaper than BLockbuster and you can keep 'em for a week :D
 
time for a rethink tbh. It's an out of date model that is only getting worse.
Something more like a lovefilm where books are held centrally per county and shipped out. With a view of going digital within say 10 years. Loads of out of copyright literature out there and newer stuff could have 1 week drm on with limited active copies at a time.

We need small tax and more localised budgeting. Unfortunately wages and land costs will always be super high in England and that will never change. So we need to find a model to minimize that and as such reduce cost, whilst maintaining a service.
 
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As far as I see it the Library is an anachronism, something that has been kept around because they've just always been there.

I would agree with Westy, decrease the amount of libraries but put money into the remaining ones. Also I think a digital library is the way to go, maybe not completely replacing but working along side.
 
Fenris said:
Which is why a digital option would help.

The thing is people just don't got to libraries as much as they used to, most schools have them anyway and most libraries just aren't kept up to date.
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Actually many people do go to libraries, reading books is very popular and our libraries are busy. They are an important part of the community in our area. There is lots of support for not reducing their numbers and I suspect that our council will continue to provide the service without any closures.
 
simulatorman said:
Actually many people do go to libraries, reading books is very popular and our libraries are busy.
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Reading books is popular, yes, I know that, I read constantly. The thing is the demand for libraries is no where near as big as the amount of people who want to visit them, at least not to justify the cost.

I would take a wild guess and say the libraries that are being threatened with closure are the ones that are less used.
 
Of course, the other issue is that many councils are currently choosing to make unpopular cuts for political reasons rather than actually trying to make their operations and activities better and more efficient.

Cutting libraries and bin collections is far more likely to create objection, and therefore give more money, than cutting diversity operations or improving efficiency in back office functions. It's part of the massive structural flaw in top down taxpayer funding.
 
Fenris said:
Reading books is popular, yes, I know that, I read constantly. The thing is the demand for libraries is no where near as big as the amount of people who want to visit them, at least not to justify the cost.

I would take a wild guess and say the libraries that are being threatened with closure are the ones that are less used.
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The demand for libraries varies from area to area and here the demand appears not to have lessened over the past years. We are lucky because no libraries are being threatened (at the moment) by our council but the adjoining council is proposing closure of all but three libraries and it looks as though it is an arbitrary selection. Thankfully they are only proposals at the moment and hopefully they will not go ahead with them.
 
Why should we be treating libraries like a capitalist, profit-making business?

Should we be doing the same to other social services then?

Dont like the idea that for something to be worth doing it has to be a profit first enterprise......

Might as well just rip the soul of out society stick it on the bbq now and be done with it...

Also whilst i agree libraries need to modernise and take advantage of the digital age. At the moment access to electronic resources is a bit of a minefield for the average user...ways of accessing materials changes all the time because e-publishers are not all singing from the same hymn sheet, they chop and change their interfaces, u need continuous training on how to use it just to keep up.

One thing which gets on my wick which only started happening the last 7 or 8 months has been happening more often.. publishers will put out articles which will say "epub ahead of print" yeah? So itll appear in the e-journal after a few months right? So if im subscribed to the e-journal i'll get it? haha Not a chance.... Only appears in this "special" :rolleyes: format...it isnt good (peer-reviewed) enough to be published in the actual journal but is associated with the journal... publishers push push push em ergo our users just see the abstract and want it...but they cant have it...coz it isnt in the journal and never will be...but hey you can pay smt like $25 - $50 for 1 article if you like :) :p
 
I remember when libraries used to be full of books. The main one here is absolutly terrible compared to how it used to be. It used to 7 feet high shelves and full of books. Now its minimalistic, and very rarely has any new books. I buy my fiction, but always liked libraries for the tomes of knowledge.
 
My wife works in a library, and complains so much about the idiotic management decisions that are made. They have endless middle managers enforcing stupid policies.

Acidhell2... A Lovefilm style business model wouldn't work for books due to cost, unless you could get the books in digital form, but I don't see ebooks taking off in anything like the same way as DVDs and games. Maybe in 10 years.
 
I go to ours sometimes but its rubbish. The books are all organised(at least in the fiction section) in alphabetical order, so you cant find anything unless you know what you are looking for(the author). Unlike in say a shop where they have the horror section, the crime section etc.

I'm not sure I care if it continues, its outdated and archaic, they need to do something with them, change them make them relevant and useful.
 
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