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July 11, 2007
MLA says there should be no more fiction in public libraries
Yinnon Ezra, board member of the MLA and head of leisure services in Hampshire has publicly questioned the need for fiction in public libraries
""we have to ask whether fiction should remain in libraries when most
people buy books"..... he is quoted in the Portsmouth News
1984? - apparently not
Posted by Tim Coates at July 11, 2007 10:18 AM
Comments
It may be the press trying to misrepresent what he said, but saying that you should have a Dick Cheneyesque list of the stupid things that Yinnon Ezra has said because there seems to be plenty of them!
You really have got to question whether people of his ilk should be influencing public library policy in this country.
Posted by: Katie Collis at July 11, 2007 11:22 AM
If this Ezra character - ensonsced in his pensionable office - is under the delusion that most novelists can establish a reputation and find a paying audience through book sales then he should be sacked forthwith.
During the long battle to save Hove Library we regularly saw people taking out bagfuls of novels week in week out.
Ezra's cavalier remark makes any community involvememt seem a waste of time.
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at July 13, 2007 6:06 PM
If indeed this is what he said, it is a disappointing remark. Not just because of its attitude to fiction, but because it can easily be used as a basis for getting rid of libraries altogether. Also the lack of any figures, although this isn't unusual in debates on libraries.
Libraries are not replacement bookshops, any more than radio is a replacement music shop.
Posted by: Pete at July 16, 2007 1:48 PM