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September 24, 2008
More money than the Americans
Many thanks to Sue Hill and her colleagues for an entertaining evening at the Roxy Cinema in Borough High Street last night. That is Sue Hill the recruitment agency and not Susan Hill the author.
They have a new and useful blog.
The occasion was a showing of the film Hollywood Librarian which is about the library profession in America, built mainly around the threatened closure of the Steinbeck public libraries in Salinas County a couple of years ago.
One fact emerged of which I was not aware which is that in the UK we pay ten times more out of taxation for our public libraries than Americans do. In London alone taxpayers pay twice as much as the library funding for the whole of the USA. In America the funds for libraries come from charity and have to be sought by librarians. We are very lucky
The film mostly comprised sincere and unassuming librarians talking about the importance of their work and I was struck by the central emphasis on books, authors and reading. Of course libraries do other things- but that clearly is the heart that beats and they want you to know. There were also some salutory professional warnings about the quality of searching on Google, which are borne out by experience.
This is all in stark contrast to the campaign for Happy Clappy Libraries which is being waged here by The Society of Chief Librarians. Presumably the PR they are using is being paid for by the public. Here is today's onslaught in The Times.
This stuff is being put out by Tony Durcan, Sue Mackenzie and the rest of this group as an attempt to justify what they have already done. As we wrote yesterday on here in London just 1% of (the huge) library funding is spent on childrens' books. In Newcastle upon Tyne, where Mr Durcan is in charge, less than 0.7% of their funding is spent on books for children to read each year.
Whatever is said about changing society and the need to attract people, those figures are simply not satisfactory and, as Tom Roper said here yesterday, they are a scandal.
As in America we would hope that senior librarians, which is what these people are, would be advocating the importance of books and reading-- where in fact they are well down the path of destroying the role of public libraries in the process of helping children to read in this country. We know that they cannot see it themselves, but unfortunately too many figures bear witness to the damage they have already done.
Posted by Perkins at September 24, 2008 8:32 AM
Comments
I was quite furious to read Sue Mackenzie's drivel in the Times.
I had to suffer 9 months of people bawling on endlessly in a records job I had recently, backed up by the local commercial radio station going non-stop.
I think it's about time Ms. Mackenzie realised, despite her trendy metroplitan bias and obvious distaste for anyone who disagrees with her (if you want to make snotty comments about people stuck in the 1950s, dear, just remember that stereotypes can work both ways!), that there are people in this world who simply do not know how to shut up or turn down the volume and I would take great pleasure in locking her in with them for a while.
I do not think a library is a place for absolute silence, but, no, nor should it be noisy; and if you had had to go through the ordeal I did, Mrs Mackenzie, you'd change your tune pretty quick!
Posted by: James Christie at September 24, 2008 10:32 AM
Perkins! Now I know where the cream for the strawberries went last night. I am glad you enjoyed the film.
We were tickled pink to have the chance to show Ann Steidl's Hollywood Librarian to our team of temporary workers and other invited guests. I was touched this morning when one of our long term workers, an Eritrean asylum seeker now naturalised, said to me that only when listening to the collection of empassioned librarians in the film did he really appreciate the true meaning of the word freedom. I confess my eyes moistened. We take so much for granted and need to remember there is a wider world out there that dont enjoy our privileges. For that is what they are.
Posted by: Sue Hill at September 24, 2008 11:42 AM