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December 19, 2008
Brighton Rocks
Our correspondent, the formidable Colley Cibber, sends a Christmas Message of great cheer:
For some time people may have had the impression that the library saga in Brighton rocks to and fro, a continual cliffhanger with much gang warfare - and the stock regularly carved up.
Something astonishing is now happening. It should be an encouragement to residents in such hard-pressed places as Swindon and the Wirrall. Readers in Brighton and Hove have continually urged stock and opening hours as the priority from which everything else follows. There have been many laments at the lack of classic works in stock. Staff are now going through lists of all classic English authors from the 16th century until now, and likewise with those from Europe and America. Two copies of missing works will be bought in good editions. And readers are invited to offer suggestions.
By their very nature these books meet a continual, steady demand - especially in these times - and they stay around after the latest “celebrity” or misery memoir has faded along with photo-heavy cookbooks and schlock novels.
No doubt this will widen, a step at a time, to include other works, and make libraries a natural port of call for books that cannot be readily found elsewhere. (Libraries kept Barbara Pym available when publishers shunned her, and this brought her eventual revival.) There is a huge appetite for good books of all kinds, and it remains a mystery why the MLA thinks otherwise. The rest of us realise that if libraries are full of good books, word spreads and readers arrive.
Posted by Perkins at December 19, 2008 6:14 PM