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March 20, 2007
Saving the libraries in Scotland
Nicola Morgan is the chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland.
I am very grateful to her (and to the Scotsman) for her permission to reprint an article she wrote last week.
I have been trying to alert people to the problem of the public libraries in Scotland for some time. I think Nicola is presenting a great opportunity in this piece. Those who care about literacy and are in a position to express their views should make a big fuss about the state of our libraries.
It's no longer any good saying "libraries are important we should cherish them" - the time has come to say "for goodness sake get our libraries back into good order" -- there is subtle but yawning difference between these two arguments. This blog votes for the second.
“Platform” - Save our Libraries - by Nicola Morgan
I should declare several interests. I’m a book-lover; I actively support literacy wherever possible; I run The Child Literacy Centre; I’m an author; and as Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland, I fight for authors. Declared interests dealt with, let me say what has made me gnash my teeth.
Library cuts - specifically, proposals by Moray Council to close libraries. They say that several facilities are ‘unfit for purpose’ and that library use in several smaller communities is declining. Possibly a link?
Libraries create readers. As a children’s author who frequently visits school and public libraries, including in Moray, I see libraries and librarians create, inspire and feed young readers, the adult readers of the future. Remove libraries, particularly from areas where bookshops are few, and you lose readers. (Online bookselling may serve existing readers but it won’t create new ones.)
Lose readers, lose authors, because authors can only write if people buy or borrow their books. Two thirds of authors already earn less than half the national average, and incomes are falling further, eroded partly by rampant price-cutting and the huge rise in ‘secondhand’ book-selling - especially on Amazon Marketplace, where books are often not actually secondhand and have earned the author nothing.
Lose readers and authors, and you diminish literature, culture, the understanding of other minds; you damage education, the power of language, choice and ambition; you destroy a pleasure which benefits not only the individual reader but also wider society.
Never mind - surely the Scottish Parliament will fight for libraries? After all, the Cultural Review, from which the draft Culture (Scotland) Bill grew, repeatedly trumpets ‘cultural entitlement.’ The thing is: it also advocates handing responsibility for cultural entitlement to ... local councils.
Never mind - Moray Council plans to transfer some libraries to schools. But school libraries are not classed as public libraries under the Public Lending Right Act. School library borrowings don’t accrue PLR, which pays authors based on public library borrowings. This already results in reduced income, particularly for children’s authors. Besides, school libraries have different needs, different audiences, different purposes.
Never mind - what about mobile libraries? Perfect! Moray runs a service every fortnight, doesn’t it? Yes … and proposes to reduce it to three-weekly.
But what about the huge, scary cost? It’s futile to deconstruct the quoted figures because it’s not clear what they’re for. A cynic would say that if you want to turn people off, you estimate huge, scary costs. Saying it’s expensive is no argument. Money can be found - if you have passion and belief.
I am appalled at proposals to cut libraries. It is detrimental to the status of books and therefore the future of authors; and therefore the minds of young readers. Where will our next generation of authors come from if not from readers? What price ‘cultural entitlement’ then?
Nicola Morgan is Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland
Posted by Tim Coates at March 20, 2007 10:34 AM