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March 3, 2009
Ed Vaizey
Ed Vaizey has been very active and very visible in public libraries in the past few months.
"Vaizey slams Burnham
03.03.09 Benedicte Page, The Bookseller"
Shadow culture minister Ed Vaizey has accused his opposite number Andy Burnham of "ignoring his responsibilities as secretary of state" by refusing to intervene in the library closures in the Wirral.
Burnham last week told the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) that he "is not minded at this stage to investigate further or intervene" in Wirral, where the council intends to close 11 libraries, nearly half its service.
Vaizey said: "Andy Burnham's refusal to take action in the Wirral effectively renders the 1964 Public Libraries Act meaningless. While it is local authorities' responsibility to provide libraries, the Act very clearly lays responsibility for ensuring a good service at the culture secretary's door. It Andy Burnham is not prepared to intervene when library provision is slashed in a local authority such as the Wirral, it is clear that he is ignoring his responsibilities as secretary of state, which in the process renders any sense of libraries being a statutory requirement for local authorities meaningless."
Posted by Perkins at March 3, 2009 6:43 PM
Comments
The Times Literary Supplement this week - issue of March 6th - has a very good piece by Jonathan Clark about the renowned Literary and Philosophical Library in Newcastle. Unless the proposal is stopped, it will be run by co-opted people from outside bodies rather than voted by the membership, and it would be all the more at the mercy of the unelected regional bureaucacies.
Clark writes that "museums, galleries and libraries have found themselves under subtly different pressures from government: not merely to to develop their collections, but to relate to the public in a different way. In Whitehall, 'culture' is implicity assimilated to 'media' and 'sport'... The Lit & Phil itself was persuaded to host a programme of eighteen experimental theatrical performances in 2008; afterwards, it was realised that the subsidy had been over £100 per head. In Covent Garden, this would bat no eyelids; in the Lit & Phil it is remarkable. Again, it has little to do with books; perhaps more to do with the 'Arts Council England North East', which in 2008 listed forty-nine staff members."
It is increasingly the case in England now that those with a taste for reading have to form their own collections. The collapse of the public-library system could bring the formation of private libraries - evidence of a growing social divide instead of the much-touted "inclusion".
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at March 5, 2009 6:30 PM