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January 30, 2008
MLA and the Reading Agency are at it again!!
"Love libraries" is only just dead in its gold lined Saatchi designed coffin and here we go again with the first of the year's nonsense from the overpaid staff of government library quangoes.
Sue Wilkinson and Miranda McKearnie have made a statement which they call short and simple. In fact it's long and complicated, contains no reasoning, and doesn't offer any help or explanation to those to whom they are preaching.. and therefore, inevitably will be yet another waste of paper and time (but I imagine they all sluiced champagne at the launch) like all the other launches and initiatives they have had. All that happens is that they get paid a large salary and yet another committee will drift off into the heat of global warming.
Why doesn't somebody tell them that this is not the way to achieve the improvements that people want and pay for. Wake up Admiral Roy- that's your job.
Posted by Perkins at January 30, 2008 8:15 AM
Comments
What on earth is this word "offer" which is used throughout the MLA press release? I have never heard anybody say, "I think I'll go for a look at the library offer". It would sound mad.
Is this another word which makes the writers of such stuff think they are being intelligent? Rather like that use of the word "outcomes" a year or so ago.
It is so easy. Provide books and people will turn up. Same with a cinema: it provides films. A clothes shop: clothes. And life goes on.
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at January 30, 2008 10:33 AM
Careful, Perkins - you're starting to sound a bit like Tim...
I'm not sure of the wisdom of "imagining" people drinking champagne at launches. Wouldn't you be better off sticking to known facts?
Posted by: Michael at January 30, 2008 3:01 PM
The Reading Agency provides champagne: what else is it for?
Posted by: Perkins at January 30, 2008 7:33 PM
Perkins is a discerning cat, it is a well known fact. Having witnessed many book launches and all that it entails - he is an expert on the "bubbly".
A saucer of Cava or Champagne?
I know which one Perkins will head for and lap up with relish....purrrr
Posted by: peg harker at January 30, 2008 8:13 PM
Look on the bright side - this statement includes two mentions of the word "books". It also offers "young people" "the power to influence the allocation of funds and the selection of books and other resources".
No point offering this "power" to people when young if it is snatched away as they get older. How about a statement from the MLA and other bodies confirming the rights of all Library users to influence the "allocation of funds and the selection of books".
I wonder what those people who work in libraries think about "young people" being "involved in staff appointments" - see paragraph 2 of the statement.
Lastly can anyone enlighten me as to the age limits that define a "young person"?
Posted by: Martyn at January 31, 2008 10:00 AM
Some insight into the reasoning here...
'Make libraries work for kids'
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/52361-make-libraries-work-for-kids.html
I'm guessing but it looks like it was a response to the government's "Aiming High for Young People, the government's 10-year strategy to combat deprivation by transforming facilities for youngsters".
The importance of libraries in this strategy: "...libraries are at the heart of the strong communities which enable children to flourish, and can offer young people a safe space free from abuse, where they can have fun, develop skills, and stay out of trouble."
Hence the MLA response?
Posted by: GSO at February 1, 2008 4:46 PM
Yes, but the MLA graveyard is full of tombstones that have stream of consciousness sayings like "libraries enable children to flourish....etc" but the truth is reality is that they ought to be like that, but they aren't and the MLA fails to do anything that will make them so
Posted by: perkins at February 1, 2008 7:53 PM
I think the last comment was unfair. The library authority which I know best, Southwark, does wonderful work with children, providing baby and toddler sessions, homework help clubs, family reading groups, teenage groups as well as safe places to hang out. Surely they're not alone in this. Also the MLA sponsored Summer Reading Challenge has increased in popularity year on year since it was first introduced.
Posted by: James at February 3, 2008 7:31 AM
Another word which bedevils libraries now is to call non-fiction "information books". A horrible term. Gibbon did not sit down to write an "information book", nor did Richard Dawkins.
Information is not the same thing as knowledge.
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at February 10, 2008 1:04 PM