Britain Faces Closing the Book on Libraries

Rhoda Nightingale

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Story Here.

I'm not British (I often wish I was) but this makes me extraordinarily sad. I support my local library every day--check out multiple books at once, and sometimes DVDs too. I would cry so hard if it closed.

Thoughts?
 

Jamesaritchie

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Library patrons need to get together and raise funds. Relying on tax dollars always means being held hostage to the economy. I live in a small city, only abut 16,000 people, but we have a very large state of the art library, and we have it primarily because patrons shelled out money from their own pockets, and ran a very active solicitation campaign.
 

muravyets

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I live in a consolidated metro area of several million. The pass-the-can approach is not applicable to such a large and integrated set of communities.
 

seun

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Library patrons need to get together and raise funds. Relying on tax dollars always means being held hostage to the economy. I live in a small city, only abut 16,000 people, but we have a very large state of the art library, and we have it primarily because patrons shelled out money from their own pockets, and ran a very active solicitation campaign.

A great idea if you live in a relatively wealthy community which has a sense of pride, place and a desire to better itself. As we're talking about the entire country of the UK, that idea is going straight down the toilet.
 

Priene

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Story Here.

I'm not British (I often wish I was) but this makes me extraordinarily sad. I support my local library every day--check out multiple books at once, and sometimes DVDs too. I would cry so hard if it closed.

Thoughts?

It doesn't make me sad at all. It makes me fucking furious.
 

the bunny hugger

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Well, it would at least work for some, surely. It would be a start. Another would be to bombard elected representative with protests. Also each library in a prosperous area could adopt a sister library in a disadvantaged area.
 
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Priene

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Also each library in a prosperous area could adopt a sister library in a disadvantaged area.

Libraries in prosperous areas have no more funds than ones in disadvantaged areas. The Tories' idea is to sack all the staff that know how to run libraries, and then we'll all volunteer to do it for free. It's Cameron's big idea, known as the Scab Big Society.
 

seun

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Who needs libraries? Let's just all sit in front of the TV, get fat and watch The X Factor.
 

Libbie

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I laugh off Armageddon. I laughed off the threats of flu pandemics. I laugh off Juggalos. I laugh off the wacky illogical dogmas of the Peak Oil Doomers.

But I'm not laughing anymore. THE END IS NIGH.
 

whacko

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Unlike David Cameron, I'm a Tory.

And unlike Priene's invective about Tory Cuts, which are less severe than Labour planned, I must point out that the New Thinking fashion, a bit of Orwellian speak no less, and prey of councils, deems reading passe.

This is the 21st Century. We're all multimedia and all that caper don't you know?

Libraries are old hat in this new technological age.

Absolute bullshit of course. But that's what forward thinking and political point scoring means.

Would you rather your council fund, say, one Climate Change Advisor, or two librarians? And I read The Grauniad. So I know the wages.

And I have got a point here. Just can't remember what it was. Probably something to do with the unique way that local government justifies how all Tories are bastards.

Regards

Whacko
 

seun

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This is the 21st Century. We're all multimedia and all that caper don't you know?

Libraries are old hat in this new technological age.

Absolute bullshit of course.

And that's the problem - followed, of course, by the people who don't think it's bullshit.
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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Remind me again what a "Tory" is? Over here we just have Democrats and Republicans. (Well, officially. I won't get into my rant about the two-party system here.)

Thinking about this globally though, I wonder just how much danger not just Britain's libraries are in, but all libraries everywhere. The biggest one I go to, the one with the biggest selections and the coffee shop in the lobby, has this volunteer program called Adopt-A-Shelf--they aren't doing any hiring right now, but they sometimes get people from the community to take one section and keep things tidy and organized. I imagine it takes a load off of the other people who work there. I donate books every so often, but I don't know how much that helps.

This post doesn't have any particular purpose, other than wondering how to help floundering libraries in my specific area. Just throwing it out there.
 

seun

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Slight derail...I saw a report on this on the Beeb over the weekend. Christ, it wound me up. You know the reports they save for the last minute of the news? Gerbil stuck in drain pipe sort of thing? It was like that. A horribly twee report with lots of shots of little kids reading books, followed by some utter twat who basically said we all have kindles now so libraries aren't needed.
 

Priene

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And unlike Priene's invective about Tory Cuts, which are less severe than Labour planned

Do you have a reliable source showing Labour planned to slaughter the library services? I don't think you do.
 

Jamesaritchie

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A great idea if you live in a relatively wealthy community which has a sense of pride, place and a desire to better itself. As we're talking about the entire country of the UK, that idea is going straight down the toilet.


You don't need a wealthy community. This city is not only poor, it's been dead broke for years. I doubt there's a wealthy community in the city, and I know it wasn't local wealthy people who made our library what it is. Ordinary patrons gave what they could, and went all over creation soliciting. From Bill Gates, who was convinced to give the library more new computers and software than you can believe, to everyone one in the country we could find an address for.

The patrons also do volunteer work, have sales of all sorts, etc., and the result was a library better than most big cities have.

It really doesn't take all that many people, but it does take time and dedicated people. A new, greatly expanded library was not cheap, but that's what happened. We didn't just keep the old one open, we had a new one built from the ground up. I think it really takes no more than two or three or four people to get the ball rolling.

I guess my feeling is that a library that doesn't have people willing to fight for it, willing to put in the time and effort and money it takes to keep it open, probably isn't wroth saving. I don't blame politicians for not wanting to give more tax money, I blame patrons for not wanting to work hard enough to save what they think matters.
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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Tory = Conservative.
Thanks. :)

However, can I ask that we please not focus on various political parties and what responsiblity they may or may not have for this library-closing?

@seun: That'd make me rage too. I only heard about it via my mom, who listens to NPR every morning on her way to work. Then I did a quick search and found that article. That it's being pushed to the side as unimportant is what could make the whole thing real, even without whatever paycuts and technological advances are attributed to it.
 

Mr Flibble

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Tempting as it is to post something inflammatory just so I can see Priene's head implode...

It's fucking stupid and I can only hope it comes back to bite whoever's arse had this stupid fucking idea.

I don't care what colour their rosette is.

Stupid. Fucking. Idea.
 

Lillie

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I live in a small Welsh village.

2 pubs, one garage, and a library that is open twice a week.

10 miles to the nearest other library on a bus that only runs every other hour (£3.70 return).

The old people of the village use that library, the kids that don't have computers at home use the computers in the library. When BT cut us off I used the computers in the library.
This half assed village needs that library as much as it needs the post office.

If they shut it down I'm going to squat it and take care of the books.

I can't say how upset I am about this.
 

Priene

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Tempting as it is to post something inflammatory just so I can see Priene's head implode...

My head's been imploding regularly since last May. I just tend to do it off-forum.

It's fucking stupid and I can only hope it comes back to bite whoever's arse had this stupid fucking idea.

It's the Tories' stupid fucking idea. Labour opened libraries, the Tories are closing them. Ideologically motivated, unnecessary, malicious. And the Liberals are going along for the ride.
 

whacko

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Do you have a reliable source showing Labour planned to slaughter the library services? I don't think you do.

Not that library services were being specifically cut, no.

But Ally Darling's proposed cuts are public record.

Have a look at my post again. I'm fairly sure that I was pointing out how councils make priorites in their budgets.

Actually, I probably didn't myself clear.

So 1 Climate Change Advisor = how many librarians? Nurses?

It's a fantastic point. Propaganda for the people to keep them paying the Council Tax with a clear conscience.

And I could go on. But I'm that drunk I've missed the train of thought. Normal service may be resumed on Tuesday.:tongue

Regards

Whacko
 

gothicangel

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Would you rather your council fund, say, one Climate Change Advisor, or two librarians? And I read The Grauniad. So I know the wages.

Surely I'm not the only one to have noticed a pattern in ConDem policies?

Science will save us all, the arts and humanities are soft subjects not worthy of government funding.
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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^Now, why is that? I know that's the majority's mentality--at least it is here as well--but who decided that whenever government funding takes a hit, the arts and education are the first to go down?