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June 27, 2006
Welcome to Bloggington on Sea
This blog is not just a campaign site for people who want to save and care about their local public libraries. It is also a set of ideas about how good libraries could and should be run for the benefit of their local communities.
Bloggington is a code name for a real town and many of the characters who appear in the various items are either real people or they represent points of view or positions that exist.
The library service in Bloggington is ideal, to my mind, and the lessons that Mr Grimsdyke teaches are the ones that are needed to be understood by those who operate libraries.
The Government departments and agencies that are lampooned are also real and I have tried to describe what they actually do rather than what they say they do. It is a privilege to be able to deride them because I do not depend on them. Many people are unable to do the same because they are employed or depend for contracts upon these people.
The blog is only part of a long and carefully planned attempt to overhaul the public library service and make it better. The strategy is to remove the influence of all these people and replace them with others who care for the genuine use of libraries rather than something that has been invented at a conference of librarians. We need to find those who are capable of giving the leadership to the service that it needs.
It is, I hope, a revolutionary site, conducted with words and analysis. I have several heroes: John Delane, the editor of The Times who brought the resignation of the cabinet of the British Government in 1855 by force of words and power of argument; Florence Nightingale, Sidney Godolphin Osborne, John Roebuck, William Howard, Thomas Chenery and Andrew Layard were among his accomplices. That was a forgotten revolution of which the British should be proud. Delane's astonishing and outrageous Leading Articles are the inspiration for this blog.
When my friends and I started this work some years ago we were told "there are no votes in libraries"- and that is no longer true; at the recent council elections in every council where campaigns have operated to save libraries, councillors lost their seats because of the public libraries. The other day someone said to me, ironically: "the Government will not fall because of public libraries". Don't you believe it.
Posted by Tim Coates at June 27, 2006 10:06 PM
Comments
The government will not fall because of public libraries. But some local councils certainly may.
Posted by: SUSAN HILL at June 28, 2006 8:59 AM
Libraries matter and there are plenty of votes in them, especially if politicians or bureaucrats try to close them down. Many local authorities are also facing cultural services inspections by the Audit Commission. Performing well in an inspection means innovation and engaging with local communities as well as enabling people to share knowledge. I'd say let's work together to put new life into our library service throughout the U.K. but let's have enthusiasts as well as anoraks and also bring the sceptics to book.
Posted by: Councillor John Whelan at September 3, 2006 1:04 PM