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September 23, 2009
SYRUP sponge
Interesting to look at the SYRUP annual public libraries conference agenda-- more remarkable for what is not there
- no mention of the Lyn Brown All Party Group report, which was trailed last year
- no mention of the John Dolan/ Ayub Khan theory about what public libraries are about
- no publishers talking about the issues of copyright and ebooks and Google.
- no mention of the Wirral Inquiry
- no mention of the subject on everyone's agenda which is how to preserve your job, sorry, how to preserve the service to the public, if the libraries budget gets cut by 15%
- no mention of the London Libraries Change Programme- which could have been a model for the cooperative working between councils that one feels is so much needed
- And a minister, Mrs Mansion Polish, who poured scorn on the hard work in Hillingdon, without even knowing what it was, appears to be going to talk about the long lost DCMS libraries review (before the Charteris inquiry is published, having said they wouldn't do that).
(and still no one asking how have Hillingdon and now Tower Hamlets have managed to achieve such a substantial growth in book lending without spending any extra public money)
Ah well-- at least Roy Clare, who like Lord Raglan after the battle of Balaklava has not been seen or heard of for many months, is billed for an appearance. Perkins might just poddle along to listen. Or will the dogs be on the gate again like last year?
It's all right for those who will get a night or two in a hotel in Bristol at someone else's expense-- that is called spongeing... SYRUP spongeing.... in which you eat your pudding and avoid the issues.
It goes without saying that the PLA - the public libraries annual conference, is closed to the public. After all, what do they know.
Posted by Perkins at September 23, 2009 9:35 PM
Comments
I advise Perkins to take some custard, to complement the pud (and some bonios for the dogs at the gate). We who cannot attend share Perkins' concerns and would be very grateful to know how she fares.
Posted by: Shirley Burnham at September 24, 2009 4:48 PM