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September 20, 2006
The Armchair Anarchist makes some big points:
This came this evening. Many thanks Mr Armchair. No crumbs here: I agree with this
"I don't know details and causes, but I'm told we lost a third of our book budget this year. I don't know where it went. It certainly wasn't on improving the buildings, though...
So, without the benefits of economic training or an insight into the arcane convolutions of local politics and council accounts-cookery, I cannot offer any great cures for the problem. It's a system that I don't understand, simple as that. But I *can* talk about why I feel that a
drop in book budget is another straw on the back of a seriously sick camel.
When library usage started to fall, the first reaction was to look for a new sub-set of customers - 'if people aren't coming for books, we'd best add more strings to the bow - diversify or die, as the man once said.' What this did was *dilute the entire concept of libraries*. The core user group who were leaving were dissatisfied with the book service they were getting. So how was paying even less attention to books supposed to get them to come back?
The focus was thrown away; and the worse the situation gets, the more the decision makers flail around for a piece of driftwood in the sea, not realising that swimming back to the solid shore of book lending is the easiest and most sensible option. *Libraries should lend books*. Stop focussing on that, and watch your users bleed away to Amazon and the high street. Simple market forces.
Posted by Tim Coates at September 20, 2006 7:55 PM