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April 17, 2009
From Under the Platform
Since those of us who are deemed not to be constructive about public libraries are not fit to have a platform -- here is a letter from a nice (Dr) lady who is with us Under the Platform
Subject: The future of public libraries
AN OPEN LETTER
Dear Mr Clare
For some years now, I have been concerned (as a lifetime user and advocate of local public libraries) about their future. In 2007 I was asked to give evidence to the library scrutiny committee of Hampshire County Council, as I am a resident of Gosport, Hampshire, where the first Discovery Centre had been launched. I was pleased to feel that, though I did not represent an organisation as such, that I still had a 'seat at the table' at which to express my views.
I was very disturbed, therefore, to hear that the MLA (and I quote from your Board meeting minutes) is keen 'not to give a platform to those without a constructive agenda'. I confess that, of the many people I've met along the way who are passionate about libraries, I've not encountered a single person who does not possess a 'constructive agenda'.
Without exception, these people all seem to want the same thing: local branches in well-maintained buildings, knowledgeable staff, open long hours, and with a comprehensive book collection.
There are many constructive approaches to achieving this and I (rather naively) expected that local councils, together with guidance from the MLA, would work with an open mind to achieve it. Instead, I sense that the MLA has another agenda altogether which bears little relation to what 'ordinary' people want from their libraries. This leads the MLA to develop 'best practice' solutions that omit those examples of best practice of which you do not approve, presumably for ideological reasons. It also leads to the dismissal of any creative solution to the deepening library crisis that does not fit with your own pre-agreed methodology.
I'm sorry if I'm putting this in too forthright a manner, but I've begun to despair about who exactly will stand up for our library service in this country. Tim Coates is certainly doing that and I, for one, am grateful that he is able to dedicate so much time and energy to putting across the views of ordinary library-users. I'm sorry that the MLA wishes to consistently dismiss these views as being unworthy of any proper consideration.
I am sending a copy of this email to my MP, Sir Peter Viggers, and separately to the 'Good Library Guide' website as I believe it raises important issues - and I do hope that you will want your reply to be similarly open to these audiences.
Thanks and regards
Dr Amanda J Field
Posted by Perkins at April 17, 2009 5:09 PM
Comments
The MLA would not encourage the atmosphere enjoyed by Jack Hunter who later wrote The Blue Max (which also made good use of libraries).
He describes poor life in the Twenties.
"One day I discovered the public library, and my recreational reading life was forever changed. I was only a kid, and yet the nice ladies at the big desk would let me borrow any book in the place. The rooms were always quiet and they smelled of paper and leather and polished wood, and I liked to go there after school and sit by the big window and leaf through books in the glow of the fading afternoon. I was surrounded by the assembled wisdom of centuries and it was exciting to know that I could draw on it at will. And for nothing, that was the great part. Without surrendering a penny of my allowance, I could share in some of mankind’s most wonderful experiences and ideas."
What's more, as an aircraft enthusiast, he was flummoxed when a schoolfriend gave him von Richthofen’s memoirs - in German. So he borrowed How to Speak, Read, and Write German; intensive study of it made him so fluent that years later, without further bother, he joined OCS and War Department Intelligence.
There is now a terrible MLA assumption that readers are incapable of such enterprise. But one keeps hearing from readers that they want more books, good books. Put books on shelves and readers find their way among them. They might not trumpet every discovery at a reading group or some such thing but they are enjoying a fulfilled life.
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at April 18, 2009 7:29 AM