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September 16, 2008
Hoots Mon- children want public libraries to have books
At last someone has asked the public what they think libraries should be like, instead of patronising them and asssuming that books are a thing of the past ... this is what they say (as reported by The Bookseller this morning)
Elaine Fulton can hardly claim credit as it is she and her chums in the Scottish councils who have allowed the expenditure on books in Scottish libraries to fall to perilous low levels for so many years. It affirms the exact opposite of the policies they have followed for years.
If choosing books is the main reason for using a public library (as MORI polls of adults and children all over the country always show and have shown for the past ten years and longer), then the easiest and best way to get more people to use libraries is to widen and improve the range of books that is on offer. That is what this blog has always consistently said-- and others have fervently denied... to the point of making us feel we must be mad
And when we put more books in libraries (a la Hillingdon, Westminster, Richmond, Oxford, Northern Ireland etc where through varying intensities of gritted teeth the councils have tried this approach) the use of the libraries has immediately and dramatically increased.
What more need is there for debate?
Posted by Perkins at September 16, 2008 9:48 AM