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October 16, 2008
A poor speech by the Minister
I was in a library yesterday in the home counties. This is one of those built in the past fifteen years within a large shopping centre, probably as a condition of the approval of the development. This is by no means a wealthy area and the library catered for many languages and offered some social security support. The space is good and bright, and I sat and read agreeably for much of the afternoon. The whole place had a friendly atmosphere and was a fine place to be. Co-location of libraries is not a new idea.
One corner of the space was devoted to desks for individual private study and later in the afternoon, when the schools came out, it was well used by students doing their homework.
This area carried a sign which advised people not to leave bags and their work on the desks when they left. It also declared the '2 rules of the library' - no eating or drinking anywhere; and no phone conversations. The sign urged library users to respect other users and explained simply that that was the reason for the rules.
One sensed that this was the polite and reasonable way that the librarian maintained a high standard - and it worked. Normally, one felt, people would give that respect; occasionally someone might test the limits, but the sign was there for anyone to point to. You could say that by that sign and by their own behaviour, the library staff had created an authority for the community and everyone benefited.
I reflected then how stupid Andy Burnham had been to make his speech following the press releases if the Society of Chief Librarians, urging councils to question the value of exactly these two rules. They competely undermined the hard earned and thought-about sense of community in this library. What they said was none of their business and raised a subject which didn't need to be aired.
Posted by Perkins at October 16, 2008 8:27 AM