« About Perkins | Main | The land of blog »
October 2, 2007
Two hundred and fifity million pounds to spend
I still believe that between councils in the UK the amount of money which is spent on activities in the public library service which the public would not miss, if they were not done, is about two hundred and fifty million pounds per annum.
That money, if redirected properly, could provide all the funds needed to restore the book collections and the buildings and to increase opening hours to a satisfactory level.
The only way to do this is tackle the matter council by council -- the problems are similar but the patients are very different .
I cannot see, as they currently are composed, any useful role for the MLA , the MLA regions or the DCMS. They are not just a waste of money, which they are, but they actually prevent by distraction, the work that needs to be done. In seven years, not one of the fundamental problems has been addressed and resolved.
So what is the forthcoming libraries conference about? None of these things. McDoodle
Posted by Perkins at October 2, 2007 8:32 AM
Comments
Government failure to support libraries is a "system-wide" failing as today's reports about the Crisis in Schools Library provision makes clear. The failure of central and local government, and even the schools themselves is symptomatic of a deep institutional malaise. Without postive experiences of using school libraries children will become adults who will not bother to use public libraries.
Press reports on the problems in school libraries are based on a recent Bookstart survey. Details are not available on the Bookstart website, but the Guardian article can be read here:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2181536,00.html
Posted by: Martyn at October 2, 2007 10:16 AM
The research into School Library provision has been carried out by the BookTrust, and is available on their website:
http://www.booktrust.org.uk/news/index.php
Posted by: Martyn at October 2, 2007 10:27 AM