The Good Library Blog

Consider me signed! I'm well cheesed-off with the library service these days and quite seriously think the only thing to do is make a public protest (I lean towards a second Jarrow march on London) because the Judean People's front (ie CILIP, MLA etc.) will do nothing other than discuss any suggestion to death!

As Brando once said in reply to the question, "what are you kids rebelling against"?

"Whaddya got"?

Can we please get out there and make some trouble?

I wasn't thinking of marching so much as putting things right. But, James, you are most welcome!

I'm sorry but I really think you are totally misguided. Libraries in 2008 and beyond are not going to be like libraries in the 1950s and there is no way things will go back. There are many more information channels beyond paper books and unless you begin to recognise this you are going to look like reactionary dinosaurs. I used to read this blog for interesting discussion but sadly Perkins, it has become little more than a whinge... things move on get used to it.

So what do you read on your information channels, Gary? Books on the internet? or don't you read? - or has reading, for you, become a thing of the 1950's?

'paper books are finished' -- oh really! -- and authors?

You have made entries on here before Gary and they remind me greatly of those we receive from some Chief Librarians (past or present?)

If you don't mind, Gary, I personally have always made it perfectly clear that every format is as important as every other format. I have never ever said throw IT out of libraries and keep the books, but I did over the years become very tired by ill-informed assumption that books would magically disappear and that society would seamlessly become paperless. I believe each format should complement the others as all have their pros and cons, not that one should wipe out the rest. I think all formats should be available via libraries, but with a central focus on books and reading.

I didn't say books were finished, just that there are many more ways to obtain information. People still buy expensive daily newsprint even when there are alternative channels like radio, TV and the web.

I read books, newspapers, the back of a corn flakes box as well as online news, wikis, blogs and so on.

You seem to be hung up on the physical book. A book may be an attractive ornament on a shelf but it's a means to an end. Perhaps the Kindle or other book readers will become another real alternative to paper books for some readers.

I do believe books are here to stay and I will probably continue to buy them. I support public libraries but I can't remember the last time I borrowed a book.

And by the way I am not a past/present or even a future Chief Librarian.

This is such an interesting discussion. My explanation (and I believe that of many others) to someone who does read and buy books but doesn't borrow them from libraries is that the selection, collection and presentation of the books has become so poor that there is nothing tempting enough on offer.

A bookshop - old or new- simply would not survive if it conducted itself in the same way as our libraries have - and despite many differences, these two services share a role of providing access to writing

No one objects, as James says, to other and interesting and ever changing routes to obtain information. But a library is only partially about access to information. A large part of it is (or should be in our view) about access to literature-- and that is what is missing at present both in reality and in the plans that are so frequently drawn up for libraries.

Information and writing are not the same thing. We don't encourage children to read only for the information they will find. We hope also that they will benefit from the use of language they will experience. One doesn't read Catch 22 as a history book-- it's the jokes, we like.

I'm not hung up on the book so much as sick fed-up of the subject of IT. I use a variety of formats (books, cornflake packets etc.) and I rate each equally highly. But I started my so-called library career handling rare books and it's quite an experience being around tomes which created modern society (ie Wealth of Nations). However, although I would strongly argue that books of that age are to be respected, they are indeed also formats for storing/retrieving information and, as Perkins points out, repositories of literature.
Anyway, I spent 15 years having fingers wagged at me whenever I simply said I liked books until I'd finally had enough. So I took a Chief Librarian's finger and put it through a shredder.
Well, I didn't actually do that, but I sure felt like it.
I'm well aware of what else is out there, but I'll happily keep banging on about the fact that the humble book is equally as important as any other format, and anyone wagging their finger at me better not be standing anywhere near a shredder!