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April 29, 2006
Shush : you might wake up a librarian
I wrote this piece for the Camden New Journal; our excellent local paper that probes the local politicians
"Shush: you might wake up a librarian"
It's exam time. Whether you have 9 GCSe's, your bar finals or your archaeology test at the evening class of the Finsbury Institute, London does its revision in April and May. Nerves are on edge, notes are thumbed and essays are learned off by heart. We have the three bank holiday weekends to provide some extra time and then the day comes and it's all over.
There isn't a public library in London open on any bank holiday and hardly any of them are open in the evenings. Few of them have the books and other material that are recommended or discussed on the thousands of study courses that are available in London. London is the learning centre of the world, but our public library service is an international disgrace. The public library ought to be the place that everyone needs at exam time, but such is the low standard of service that is offered that no one even thinks of them as a place to use. Somewhere you can get out of the house, or your flat and a bedsit and make a little corner with your books and notes in a quiet well lit place. That's what a library should be.
We pay £200m each year for the public libraries of London. For that money there should be one membership card, one library catalogue, one website which shows you where your local library and all of them should be open until ten o'clock, every night of the year. Some of the big ones should be open 24 hours, in the same way that the big supermarkets of central London are. Wake up librarians: people in London work all the time, you know, and they need to study when it fits in with their other commitments.
After years of moaning about the state of libraries and watching them steal our money and give nothing in return, there is some effort to clean some of the buildings. It's pleasing to hear that Westminster are renovating the beautiful Victoria library in Buckingham Palace Road. But clean safe well laid out buildings that allow private dignified study are only part of the story: the libraries have to be open and above all they have to have extensive and comprehensive collections of books, in abundance and available. Camden boasts about the Swiss Cottage library, because they have washed the windows, but the book shelves are pitiful. I looked the other day for Marquez and Laurie Lee, for a course that a friend is doing; the Swiss Cottage library had nothing on its shelves by either of those authors.
The councillors of the London Boroughs do not demand the service on our behalf that their highly paid library professional officers should deliver. They need to get a hold of the situation and do some banging on the table. Shhhh- you might wake them up.
Posted by Tim Coates at April 29, 2006 8:05 AM
Comments
Too right, too right. Good on you for posting this kind of thing. I have (belatedly, sorry) got around to posting about your blog and campaign. Not many people read my blog but I hope that a few will and that it will all help to get momentum going.
Posted by: Maxine Clarke at April 29, 2006 9:25 PM
The answer is to give a London Library authority to Ken.. This is one area where he could make a difference and make himself a hero
Posted by: Elgar Atkins at May 5, 2006 12:59 PM