The Good Library Blog

No library in Sussex has a copy of Jeff Torrington's glorious novel Swing Hammer Swing! which, published in 1992, was the Whitbread best first novel and then its overall Book of the Year.

It was twenty years in the writing, and for some of that time Torrington suffered Parkinson's desease, and he has recently died.

Brought up in some adversity, he relished public libraries from childhood onwards, and was encouraged in his writing by them during a series of mundane jobs. His resilence, great humour and sharp eye are all in this novel, and it is dismaying to think that somebody who set such store by the public-library system should now be so let down by it.

Readers, by their very name, want books - not endless "initiatives" and press releases. Anybody who chances upon Torrington's novel could well find great delight, but Sussex readers are denied it.

The loss of public-library books fuels social desolation.

"We are wary on this site of professional librarians claiming to be holy" - not a very constructive comment. Does this website want dialogue or just want to bash the current state of public libraries? I don't think I shall comment any further as I don't see any realistic point.

Dear Mr Hawtree exactly where are Sussex library service going to get a copy of a book not even available on Amazon due to having not been reprinted since 1998. No library should have a ten year old paperback on its shelf because it won't have any pages left. I suggest you raise your bugbear with the publishers and think before you raise stupidly high expectations on libraries. It is almost impossible to expect anything but the highest quality hardback to last more than five years of decent use (paperbacks can last 20-30 issues a good hardback 50-60). If they are not making these issues you have bought the wrong book. Like it or not as Perkins says we need to provide a service that people want, not tatty held together by tape books that we think are worthy. If it is a classic and has demand it will be republished if not when it falls apart or is not issuing it goes to be rplaced by the next prize winner (and their are many) and a decent collection of back catalogue titles. So please grow up and think before you rant, you could always try the execellent interlibrary loan system, that can get you almost any book in the english language for minimal cost (but at excessive cost to the library), but you may have to wait!

Bruno, unpleasant though it must seem, the constructive point that is being made is that the public and local councillors cannot trust the library profession to defend or advocate for the role of books in public libraries.

Nobody likes to see it or to believe it, but until we face this fact the library service is not in safe hands.

What is A talking about. There ws a time, when public libraries knew thier business and that all good fiction was retained, at least one ciopy would have been available within the authoriity. And I am assuming the book referred to is not a Mills & Boon? As for inter library loan, was Mr Hawtree offered that? I doubt it, this unique and niche service available via public libraries is usually hidden from view and never ever offered. There used to be a magnificent scheme covering the country and aided very well by brilliant and working technology, and run by an organisation called Laser (I think), the introduction of the MLAs finished it off!

Public librraies are the nations depository for fiction and should retain at least a copy of all fiction liteature, never mind the age. I remember a time when one of the London Boroughs dumped its collection of Arthur Connan Doyle!!

Christopher Hawtree is quite right in what he says about the availability of books. It has nothing to do with the book being ten years old and out of print. Just down the road from where I live the oldest book in the Library dates from 1350. its been heavily used throughout its early life, and the binding has been replaced many times. Well-made paperbacks can withstand more than 20-30 issues, and still be rebound. Rebinding is the forgotten art for many libraries

The book could easily be available if (a) it had been purchased and (b) rebound. Of course there is an interlending system - but the point is that a good percentage of backstock should be available from local and county stacks, and not reliant on the British Lending Library to supply.
The BLL does a great job, but it is being asked to stretch its resources to cover for gaps in the public library service. Not only on interlending - we also see it in the demands being made on the British Library in London.

"A" believes that if a book isn't "popular' it shouldn't be stocked but if it is popular it should be chucked out as too scruffy. Many worthwhile titles languish out-of-print for a variety reasons and it cannot be assumed that every good book will automatically be republished. There was also a time when if a "classic" was out of print - the Library Association would republish it.

What is happening now is that Libraries are abdicating responsibility to Amazon and Abe. The answer to the reader is not "We can get that for you next week" but "We don't have it but you can get it on the internet".

There may not be copies on Amazon - but that is the reason why libraries are necessary.

A derides my concern that there is no copy of Jeff Torrington's Swing Hammer Swing! in any Sussex library.

It is a prime function of a library system to provide books that are not otherwise available. For many years, the old Brighton Library, for example, had a basement store of books from decades ago. Even if a book looks "tatty", that does not matter if somebody wants to read it.

Either a replacement copy of Torrington's novel should be obtained from a secondhand dealer or, at the very least, some copies should have been kept in a Store.

This raises the interesting question of whether book-supply systems allow for libraries' buying of books from secondhand dealers to plug the holes in stock.

Sigh I fear I am uncovering the real problem libraries face. A lack of focus and clear understanding what people want. 90+% of the population want clean libraries with good book stock that is simple and easy to use. Yet they tie themselves in knots trying to provide specialist services at huge expense to the odd peculiar taste. Has anyone ever looked at the cost of inter library loans or stores? It is vast with the average library spending thousands of pounds to supply around two dozen readers with their peculiar habits (organ making in medieval times to bizarre american psychics visions of the monkey god). Should libraries be absorbing costs of over £15 an issue for these few readers or providing more copies of a-lvel revision guides, nursing practice books, cv guides or books on starting a new buisness that the average customer is looking for (oh no wait we can spend four times the cost of the book getting it re-bound and hire a warehouse somewhere for that one man a year who wants that quirky book that did well 16 years ago, but hasn't been heard of since he may come back to re-read it).
Libraries need to rim down, focus on what matters and making sure budgets match areas of demand not archaic practices, the latest council whim or the belief that every library service should be able to provide every book for every tatse.
Yes there are some rare and valuable books that should be kept, but providing last deacades pop fiction is not one of them and nor is your average public library the place to keep them,

Don't let's fall out over the pursuit of Jeff Torrington's book. There are professional experts (I work with a number) who know how to seek, search, reprint or use whatever means are necessary to obtain quite obscure titles and it doesn't cost 15 pounds per book to do it. The service operates for University Libraries around the world and is available to any public library. Let us rather agree that what is lacking is the clear focus and direction and the simple understanding of what people need in their public libraries

When Scott Fitzgerald died, his books were out of print. For a large chunk of Barbara Pym's life her novels were only available from Chivers in library reprints.

By keeping books available to readers at large, libraries perform a key function. All the more so when new books have so short a time in which to establish themselves in bookshops dominated by 3-for-2 "promotions".

A's cod-titles are a poor argument. I continue to think that it is a shoddy situation for Sussex libraries to lack even one copy of Jeff Torrington's very real novel. Naturally, it might not be to every taste but I reckon that a fair proportion of those who picked it up - if it were available for them to do so - would think it well worth a whirl.

Now, don't get me started on M H Abrams's The Mirror and the Lamp...

Mr Hawtree might like to consider moving to Oxfordshire. We have two copies of "Swing Hammer Swing" and a copy of The Mirror and the Lamp.I hope this debate continues - I have found it most interesting