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April 14, 2008
Total Delight at the London International Book Fair
The London Book Fair has become a paradise of enjoyment.
3 years ago it was becoming a grey and tired event, although it always fascinating and a pleasure to attend. Then for two awful years it was sent to a gulag in the Docklands.
But last year and now this it has become a joy of books and a bonanza of wonderful things. Aisle after aisle, hall after hall, brightly lit stand after stand, all full of fantastic publications touching every subject, thronging with people from all over the country and the world. These books hold every view the world can hold, from ultra serious and academic to beyond the lunatic and lighthearted
I wish, I wish that every librarian, councillor and library official could spend time at the book fair seeing why they worry so wrongly about whether there is a future for books. The Library and Information show should be part of this event, and not some weedy miserable gathering of the inept in Birmingham. The librarians should hold their conferences here, not in some hotel of their own. This is the place for libraries to gain inspiration- in Earls Court at the London Book Fair.
Posted by Perkins at April 14, 2008 8:50 PM
Comments
Wasn't Gordon Brown there to talk about his enthusiasm for Kinglsey Amis?
Whatever happened to the "moral compass" which, with his advent, was pointing in a new, serious, bookstock-increasing direction?
Especially as the economy looks set to make a free read of library books desirable...
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at April 16, 2008 9:57 AM
>The Library and Information show should be part of this event, and not some weedy miserable gathering of the inept in Birmingham.<
Whereas I might agree about the venue for the Library and Information Show, I do think that calling librarians like my colleagues - school librarians who presented on the Wednesday - "inept" a real insult to my profession. I was due to speak on the day myself, as a past School Librarian of the Year, and do not recognise myself in your description.
Posted by: Anne Robinson at May 2, 2008 9:29 PM
How very kind of you to comment. Did you go to the Library and Information Show? My comments are all about public libraries. I don't have any view about school librarians- I'm sure that many of them do an essential job extremely well, but I'm not qualfied to say. It's the administration and the management of the public library for which I have little regard. Don't you think the annual gathering of school librarians would be better held at the LIBF? That's the point. At the LIS there is hardly a book in sight.
Posted by: perkins at May 2, 2008 10:04 PM
I am glad that you were not including us! We did not have an "annual gathering" at the LIS. Some of us were asked to do a presentation to any school librarians who happened to be there. We have our own conferences - run by the SLA and SLG - at different times of the year. Also, even though many of us would love to attend the London Book Fair, I doubt if many schools would allow us to go - the cost of travelling to London, plus convincing our headteachers that the book is still alive and well!
Posted by: Anne Robinson at May 4, 2008 10:25 PM