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June 14, 2007
Public Library Standards are finished
I read that CILIP Update has an article reporting that Public Library Standards are now a thing of the past.
Shall we tell their sad and sorry history here? Will heads roll at the DCMS and MLA? Will the public ever see back the hundreds of thousands of pounds that have been revising and reviewing them. Didn't Price Waterhouse Cooper get paid a fortune last year to report and recommend a new set? Were not the Parliamentary Select Committee assured that new measures were just around the corner? weren't bus loads of Welsh librarians brought to London for consultation?
Will councils ever believe anything that Whitehall says about public libraries ever again?
What is the Government policy on public libraries? don't tell me !! "They are so important to local communities" -- oh gosh
Who is in Charge?
Make no mistake: when the full story of the destruction of the British Public Library service is told, as it should be, it is a tale of incompetence, evasion and wilful disdain for the public on a scale that will astound readers around the world and in ages to come. Civil servants of DCMS, officials and board members of MLA (and Resource, as it was) and the other regional agencies and senior members of CILIP those of the SCL and members of the ACL deserve nothing short of trial by their peers and the punishments of the Red Queen. Away with them all
Posted by Tim Coates at June 14, 2007 10:31 AM