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February 15, 2009
Dewey
There is a long article in the magazine section of Mail on Sunday today about Dewey the American library cat in Spencer, Iowa, about whom a book has been written and a film is to be made.
Good for library cats everywhere.. We are important, even if a little sleepy sometimes
Posted by Perkins at February 15, 2009 7:06 PM
Comments
The great cat Dewey could have a considerable influence.
He was pushed through the library's drop-off box as a tiny kitten and was heard squealing the next morning. He soon recovered, and was kept by the Library.
He was soon so popular - in the late-Eighties when the state was beset by banks ruining the farming trade - that the library usage went up from 63,000 a year to more than 100,000 a year. The librarian Vicki Myron describes this in the book Dewey published this week (Hodder). All manner of people found the cat a great joy.
The staff paid for Dewey's upkeep, and there is a great lesson here for England. It costs perhaps £3 a week to run a cat but rather more to run Roy Clare and the MLA mice, which has achieved nothing like the success of Dewey in doubling the number of readers.
Close down the MLA, provide each library with a cat and many more books, and we should see a nationwide transformation.
What's more, Dewey showed that libraries are healthy places in which to sit around: he lived until nineteen.
Posted by: Christopher.Hawtree at February 16, 2009 9:43 AM
Three cheers for Suffolk Libraries! Having abandoned Dewey in their village branches, a new Head reinstated this loyal creature.
Has YOUR service left him for dead?
Posted by: No Brain at February 17, 2009 10:42 PM
I knew a time would come when this blog would have some constructive advice.
Posted by: Perkins at February 19, 2009 9:55 AM