About Perkins
January 5, 2009
The Times Newspaper and books in libraries
There are a number of reasons why this blog has strong links with The Times Newspaper
Here is one of the reasons why-- well done to them
Posted by Perkins at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
Essex libraries are a mess
From a library user in Essex
Essex Libraries are in a mess and nobody seems to care. My local library is selling off books as though they were competing with Woolworths' final day sale. I've picked up a few gems, but that does mean that there are fewer available for research. I cannot use my library, which is one of the largest in the county because the books it does retain are so out of date. I tend to nip over to Redbridge, which is on a bus route from where I live in Loughton. Ilford's research library is excellent but I shouldn't have to go out of county to find the books I need. I do use the Essex online services, but whenever I look for a particular book it is usually over at Chelmsford or Southend and it may as well be in Scotland for all the good that is to me. Interlibrary loan does not work terribly well and the local history section has also suffered the same fate as other books and many have been sold off or sent to Chelmsford. Why is everything at Chelmsford?
A word about the staff too - they are mostly helpful but they are not librarians and they do not have the research skills to help users undertaking serious research. I watched one trying to help a someone with a family history question and she had no idea where to start - other than recommend the woman to go to the Essex Record Office. The topic of the research was a Victorian author, but the library assistant had clearly never heard of her even though she was the JK Rowling of her day. Had the assistant known a little more about books, she would have suggested looking in a biographical dictionary.
Posted by Perkins at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
January 4, 2009
Hampshire conference
Here is some positive publicity for the conference in February in Hampshire.
As I said over Christmas, I believe we know enough and have sufficient resources to make big improvements now in our library service. The people who hold the levers are leaders of local councils. That's what this conference is all about.
We should improve 700 libraries each year for the next 5 years. That's the aim. Each of them needs longer hours, better stock and a clean up and refit. We are looking for councils to join the movement. Any takers among councillors? Would CILIP or Unison like to join in? Or anyone else (700 means only 4 or 5 per council on average-- it's easy to do.)
Posted by Perkins at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 2, 2009
Four libraries are to be closed in Southwark
Southwark currently has 13 libraries including the sadly ruined one in Newington Causeway where the council needlessly closed the beautiful reading room and reference library last year. This action will reduce the number to nine.
The budget for libraries in Southwark was £7.5m in the last published figures. With that kind of money there is absolutely no need to close anything.
Does anyone know where these 4 are?
Here is the story on Saturday in the South London Press.
Posted by Perkins at 9:09 PM | Comments (1)
Comments
Posted by: Martyn at January 3, 2009 11:42 AM
January 1, 2009
Are we about to see the reformation of CILIP?
I hope so. It has seemed to me, over the years that radical improvement was needed in the public library service, that the one body that stood as blocking doorkeeper was CILIP. They could have encouraged reform and change on so many occasions and each time they have fumbled the opportunity. They have until now been unable to give the leadership that they were in such a strong position to provide. As James Christie, who is one of their most experienced members, with characteristic lucidity, points out in a comment below "They should just start with 'a public statement that they like books and no question about it... and (make) a ban on the use of jargon'. James so often points out the profession appears obsessed with the pursuit of new and transient technologies instead of concentrating on the immediate needs of readers to have access to books and other available material.
The public should be assured that the trustees want CILIP to start acting like a body which genuinely exists as a charity in the pursuit improving the library service to its library clients. In the case of public libraries that means books, buildings and knowledgeable staff there to help the public if they ask for help. We want to hear that the newly reorganised CILIP council wants to play its role in improvement and to promote the value and use of public libraries and literacy in the population. We should encourage them to use their experience and knowledge as librarians to assist councils to make change, and not to prevent it or hide from what it means.
Quite right. Bring it on quickly.
Posted by Perkins at 4:19 PM | Comments (1)
Comments
David Nobbs recalls visiting Peru and being told by a university friend, John Medcalf who had become a priest there, that "a Peruvian had approached him and said that he'd heard of a thing shaped like a brick from which you could learn things. This had inspired John to set up a rural library in the north of Peru. Later he would be employed by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua to do the same. Books are valued in Central and South America. Books are classless. Books are about spreading knowledge, not keeping it to oneself."
We could do with the MLA etc hearing about those things shaped like a brick from which you can learn things.
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at January 2, 2009 12:45 PM
December 27, 2008
A New Year Appeal
This call is an intent to make major steps forward.
To CILIP, the MLA, the LGA, BIC, to the Society of Chief Librarians and the ACL, to IdeA and the Audit Commission, to individual councils, to the Ministers and civil servants in the DCMS, if they wish, to Unison, if they want-- to MP's and to political parties, to Alan Gibbons and his friends, to authors anywhere, to their agents and to publishers and suppliers of all kinds, to librarians and to library staff, to councillors, cabinet members and council officers with a connection to libraries, to teachers, to schoolchildren and students and scholars of any age, to the Reading Agency, the National Literacy Trust; to readers, to LLL and all user groups and campaigns, to trade associations or library consortia, to those many journalists and their newspapers and those editors and proprietors who really care about this subject-- let us unite in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland- or anywhere else-, work together and make ourselves available to any council that asks for help.
If a council is struggling with its budgets, seriously has to consider closures or cutbacks, or cannot find sufficient money for its book fund- and asks for help, through councillors, through officers, through librarians or through local people, organised or not , then let us, together, help them. Perhaps if they know there is someone that will help them, they will ask and not be embarrassed to do so.
Who will join me? I am not asking for money - but for an agreement to share purpose and vision, to bury pride and to give commitment that will seek and make improvement.
Posted by Perkins at 7:24 PM | Comments (5)
Comments
In a letter in August 1997, Ted Hughes wrote, "There's been a catastrophic quiet destruction of the libraries throughout Britain that few people seem to know about".
Readers themselves knew about it, and, with declining stocks, dropped away. As the situation further worsened, they have become rather more vocal.
The loss of books has created a social divide between those able to get hold of them and those who cannot. There are now signs, however, that librarians are taking a stand against the bureaucrats.
Also in the Ted Hughes Letters is a splendid one in which he tells his daughter about the way to set about exploring the background to Antony and Cleopatra. Whether she would find Plutarch's Lives in a library now is another matter.
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at December 28, 2008 10:01 AM
Christopher is right. Out of 53 libraries in Hampshire, only 4 have Plutarch on the shelves. The rest of Hampshire's copies are languishing in the County Store where no potential borrower can simply stumble on them and discover a treasure. One move that Hampshire might consider is moving books out of the store and onto the shelves (Gosport Discovery Centre, for example), has acres of space for more books and, incidentally, no copy of Plutarch). It's not good enough to say that the public can order books - this is fine for those who already know what they want to read. It's no good for those who don't, yet who might through serendipity, discover a book on the shelves that opens up a whole new world for them. Isn't that, after all, supposed to be one of the joys of libraries?
Posted by: amanda Field at December 29, 2008 8:42 AM
I think I am already enjoined, but hope the general spinelessness of local councils (which I have experienced) does not mean this call to arms will fall on deaf ears and closed minds. I would rather we marched on London and mooned in front of CILIP but I do still love books, and I do agree with a CILIP article that warns Britain is facing an information management crisis. It would be nice to hook up with someone else out there who still has passion combined with a practical desire to stock the shelves and sort the systems. As for the rest of 'em, may they be flushed out of the USS Enterprise's shuttlebay in their underpants and/or left without water in Sierra Leone!
Posted by: James Christie at December 30, 2008 4:03 PM
James. You are most certainly enjoined, but even more, someone is listening: there are senior folk at CILIP who would like to make contact with you. If you give me your email address I shall pass it on carefully. (tim.coates@yahoo.com)
Posted by: Tim at December 30, 2008 5:46 PM
Dear Tim, I'll email you once I get back to the flat 5th January. Off home to see my 80-year-old mother who is presently suffering the downgrading of her mobile library service from weekly to fortnightly (South Lanarkshire Council receives the award of The Golden Raspberry for that), and to see what constructive suggestions I can make to CILIP. A ban on jargon (may the word metadata and the concept of revalidation burn in hell for all eternity!) and a public statement that they like books and no question about it might be a start!
Posted by: James Christie at December 31, 2008 10:25 AM
December 24, 2008
Happy Christmas
To everyone who comes on this site.
My object is to make the public libraries in this country as good as they possibly can be: well stocked with really interesting and useful new and old books, journals, films, music, access to information and history and so on; open long hours every day into the evening; attractive comfortable welcoming buildings which are a pleasure to visit, to work and spend time in and librarians who enjoy what they do and are knowledgeable and helpful to everyone who needs their assistance.
In the past year and even more, in the past few months, it is possible to see how this can come about. Some walls which seemed impenetrable, have begun to crumble. Let us hope that next year, at last, brings some dramatic improvement. All the resources that we need are available, it is truly just a question of putting the right pieces of the jigsaw in the right places. Have a lovely holiday, from a small black cat asleep on the sofa.
Posted by Perkins at 6:46 PM | Comments (0)
Perkins, Southwark Council claim that Library closures were considered as an option, but those plans have been "discarded" Lewis Robinson, for the council is reported as saying:
"we have no plans to close the libraries… as part of this budget.
"We are in a tough financial situation and libraries were presented as an option to balance the budget, but it was completely discarded weeks ago."
http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/00,news,13574,440,00.htm
It is, however, important to keep a watch on the situation.