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May 6, 2009
New Mill Library in Kirklees
from 'Jon'
Like many libraries, I suspect, Kirklees would like to improve its stock still further, but budgets do not always allow for this. (Kirklees have actually had considerable extra bookfund with which it has improved its stock over the last three years.) Quality of stock, I fear, is not the only issue in determining how many books are issued each year - not by a long chalk!
When faced with budget cuts in the service, Library Managers have to consider how to save the most money for the least impact on users. The sad fact is that in Kirklees New Mill's visitor and issue statistics are quite poor. There are other libraries quite nearby - Holmfirth is just 1.4 miles away, and on a regular bus-route. With a replacement mobile library service two days per week as well the, (relatively few,) library users in New Mill will be inconvenienced, but far less so than other borrowers in Kirklees. And the final nail in the coffin for New Mill is that the cost savings are significantly higher than might be the case at other libraries in Kirklees, because New Mill is one of the few library buildings in Kirklees that the Council does not own - they pay rent. Closing New Mill may save as much money as closing two libraries elsewhere.
Nobody likes closing libraries - least of all the library services that run them. But the sad truth is that in these straightened times of capped budgets and cost comparisons, when half of the services one might once have obtained from your library can be found on the internet and when a new book can be purchased from Asda or Tesco for £3 or less, it is increasingly difficult for library staff to justify their own existence to those who hold the purse strings.
(As an aside, I was amused by the petition put up by local people in support of New Mill Library. New Mill is a relatively affluent area - exactly the kind of upper-middle class folk whom you would expect to be staunch advocates of library services and continuing education. Unfortunately, they are also the same people who can afford to buy the books they need and the majority of them also have broadband internet access at home. Which might explain why the number of names on the petition was more than four times the number of regular library users at New Mill! If all these people actually used their Library, it wouldn't be closing!)
Jon- if you would like to say who you are-- or write to me with an email address-- there is so much which you are assuming in what you say, that may not be true at all, I would love to offer my help and go over all these figures and questions with you. You mustn't, I suggest, blame people who don't use the library for saying it should stay open. People don't have to use libraries, but they are entitled to a comprehensive library service for the occasions, or times in their lives when they do need one.
Most of the books that a library has cannot be bought in Tesco for £3-- that is such a silly thing to say, one wonders what is behind it
Posted by Perkins at May 6, 2009 7:18 AM
Comments
um, where does Jon say that most of the books that a library has can be bought in Tesco for £3?
Posted by: jsml at May 6, 2009 7:59 AM
"when half of the services one might once have obtained from your library can be found on the internet and when a new book can be purchased from Asda or Tesco for £3 or less,"
I took that to mean that where one could have found a new book to read in the library, being one of the main services of a lending library, now one can find one in Tesco for £3 or less. Non?
Posted by: perkins at May 6, 2009 9:02 AM
"I was amused by the petition put up by local people in support of New Mill Library. New Mill is a relatively affluent area - exactly the kind of upper-middle class folk whom you would expect to be staunch advocates of library services and continuing education"
Be amused all you like, this is still a vile, mealy-mouthed comment. Library services are used by everyone in a community, regardless of perceived social status. And why would you expect only the "upper middle class" to use libraries?
Posted by: Exit, pursued by a Bear at May 6, 2009 10:09 AM
It's also worth remembering that not everyone acts purely out of self-interest: just because the people who 'Jon' suspects do not even use the library object to its closure, that doesn't mean they are not entitled to protest. They may indeed be protesting on behalf of those people in the area who CAN"T afford to buy the books they want to read (or indeed, need advice from library staff as to what they might want to read) and may not be content with the Top Twenty books chart at £3 from Tesco.
Posted by: Amanda Field at May 6, 2009 8:49 PM
How much is the rent, Jon?
Posted by: perkins at May 6, 2009 9:42 PM
@Exit, re-read the quote. Jon expects the affluent to support libraries as a 'good thing', but not to have any need for them on a day-to-day basis. non?
@Amanda, whilst they certainly have the right to protest on behalf of others, it's surely particularly galling that they don't make the effort to use them, if that would avoid the percieved need to close them (c/w arguments re: amazon vs independent bookstores).
Posted by: Paul at May 7, 2009 3:55 PM
I really don't go for this idea that people 'ought to make the effort' to use libraries. The problem doesn't lie with the people but rather with the libraries. If the libraries were as they should be people would find them irresistible.
This whole argument isn't about sentiment or nostalgia, it's about people who are given money to run libraries doing their job properly.
Posted by: perkins at May 7, 2009 7:08 PM