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October 1, 2007
About Perkins
Perkins has been the library cat at Bloggington on Sea Carnegie Library on the dockside of Bloggington harbour for many years. When Perkins was small, the librarian, Mrss Sideloader, made a space for her to sleep by removing volumes 12-14 of Elgar Atkins’s Naval Manoeuvres in Bloggington Bay During the Reign of Queen Anne, which were shelved directly above the old steam radiator. Today, Perkins occupies the space of four more volumes - a tribute to Mrs. Sideloader’s generosity and to the many hours Perkins spends at Mrs. Hill's whelk stall on the sea front.
Perkins has been awarded many letters: OBE, MBE, KGB, and MGB. This summer she became a "Cat of the British Empire" (CBE). She is a life member of SYRUP, a mysterious organisation whose activities only she understands. She also has relatives in many countries including Wales.
We are honoured that she has agreed to host this public library blog. In gracious recognition of this work, we have awarded her honorary American citizenship.
Posted by Trevor Young at October 1, 2007 2:37 PM
Comments
Perkins, you're an example to the rest of us. My own feline friends like to curl up on a good book, or The Guardian review section on Saturdays. When small, they preferred sitting on the dictionary, as it raised them high enough to put their noses in my tea mug. But their great achievement is teaching me how to relax. Learn from your cat, everyone.
Posted by: Walthamster at October 25, 2007 12:04 PM
Wow Perkins! you are an inspiration to us all - I think I am owned by your cousin, Pickles! Unfortunately, his sister Popcorn, is not a book lover and receives many swipes from Pickles for her behaviour!
Keep up all your good work - but make sure this is not to the detriment of your whelk stall visits!
Posted by: Lippie at December 9, 2008 12:54 PM
When reading Mr Hawtree's cheap slur on Oxfordshire Libraries I can't help but think that "Old Wives' Tales" is an appropriate description of his message.
Oxfordshire Libraries has 9 copies of this particular title, including 5 of the 2007 Penguin Classics edition, 2 of which are in the Central Library (assuming that it was the Central Library visited of all our libraries in Oxford). Mr Hawtree's friend needs to realise that the strange thing about public libraries is that people do actually borrow books which explains why sometimes a title may not be on the shelf. A spot check today revealed 3 novels by Arnold Bennett on the shelves of the Central Library, including a copy of the title in question.
Oxfordshire Libraries takes great pride in its stock and continues to place books and reading at the forefront of what it is about. Because of this emphasis and the consequent protection of the book fund in times of 'efficiency savings', usage and book issues have been increasing over the past few years. Consequently, I take great exception to comments such as Mr Hawtree's, based as they are on second-hand tittle-tattle and lack of research.
In this same context, 'Martyn' may also be interested to know that Oxfordshire Libraries, with half the population and budget of Essex, currently has 4 subscriptions to the TLS, 3 to the London Review of Books, and 3 to the Literary Review.
Posted by: Rex at January 7, 2009 12:49 PM
I'm utterly stunned to find so little discussion on the internet about what I consider to be the blight of libraries, certainly in the UK. Surveillance software resident in the public library internet pc's. The complete antithesis of everything that a library is supposed to be about.
I had a major confrontation with the manager of a supposed library on the outskirts of Weston-super-Mare a few days ago. His complete attitude was that the blocking of any and every site that the library service/content management software chose to do was completely all right with him.
Posted by: Andrew Preston at March 1, 2009 12:57 AM