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December 28, 2009
Figures about books
Neill Denny writes in today's Bookseller
"Ten years ago British book sales were worth around £1.25bn; this year they will equate to some £1.75bn. Around 240 million books will be sold in the UK this year (compared to 154 million in 2000), with 128,000 individual titles published. Export sales add perhaps another £1bn in revenue. Publishing is Britain's most succesful creative industry, aside from state-subsidised TV—the only one where we are genuine world leaders."
During that time, even though 75% of library visitors are looking for books, the library profession has constantly obsessed about the future of libraries "beyond books" and droves of ministers, local politicians and managers responsible have allowed their attention to the book industry to fade.. now, in some places, as little as 2% of the library budget is spent on books- in London that figure is less than 6%. The recent London Libraries consultants referred to books, not as interesting, but only as 'dusty' and 'old'.
Even a local councillor can hardly have missed that far from being elitist advancement, much of the growth in publishing came from an outstanding period of creative writing for children, in which this country's authors lead the world. (Harry Potter.......etc)
Where, logically as publishing flourished, it should have increased, the number of books available for lending in public libraries has in fact fallen from 92m to 76m and as a consequence the annual number of books issued has fallen from 486m to 307m - thus the usefulness of libraries has fallen so that the percentage of the UK population who use them has declined from 32% to just 20%. In Northern Ireland that figure is now 16% and in Cardiff it is 14%. In Wakefield, where Ed Balls, the minister for children has his constituency, and boasts how good the library service is, it is in fact so poor that only 13% of the population find any use for it even once a year- which is almost the lowest figure in the country.
Those who continue to hold expensive conferences and write reports about social networks and libraries in the digital age should turn their minds instead to the question of whether it is time to put books back in our public libraries.
By neglecting the value and importance of books in the past ten years, we have already come close to destroying the public library service- and for most of the population, especially, the younger half, it is now a service of little use or purpose. How could we have been, and continue to be, so stupid?
Posted by Perkins at December 28, 2009 6:06 PM
Comments
I am glad to see the figures for book sales.
The latest issue of Prospect contains yet another article (on videogames admittedly) that believes "people may no longer buy books, newspapers or music as they did". No they don't - they buy more of them.
The figures for libraries are disappointing. It would be interesting to see how they break down in terms of investment versus use.
I guess that if book budgets are falling there may well be a few dusty and old items on the shelves (all be it that they may also be interesting). I borrowed an aging Haynes Manual for my aging car lately. It was yellowing but helpful.
On another note I wonder if it is time for public libraries to start disinvesting from CDs? I doubt they make much (if any money) from these anymore.
Posted by: A Loughton Library User at December 29, 2009 12:32 PM
For what ever reason the powers that be within the library world have taken their eye of the ball and panicked. We are desperately trying to be all things to all people instead of, and I hate to use the phrase, "getting back to basics" providing great books, great buildings and great staff.
Posted by: Alan Wylie at December 29, 2009 1:14 PM
Alan. I completely agree with you. I can't see what's wrong with seeking to go back to basics. There is even an MLA publication that says that 'libraries seek to be all things to all people'... the reality is that such an aim is never achieved, you always end up as nothing to anyone having spent a huge amount of money
But we are not alone. The Culture Select Committee report by Gerald Kaufman said exactly the same as you are saying. They were comprehensively sneered at by library folk and civil servants. I don't know why, or by what authority, because they (Kaufman and his committee) were completely right.
Posted by: Tim Coates at December 29, 2009 2:01 PM
I couldn't agree more myself. These stark facts allied to the blinkered inability of the DCMS, the Judean People's Front (CILIP), the DCMS and (most recently) Margaret Hodge to indeed concentrate on the basics and stop technobabbling (metadata, Web 2.0 & information plinths, please **** off), waving e-readers and peppering every sentence with the word 'digital,' are the reason why I started writing here in the first place. Rubbish like this, spouted by graduates who seem to have emerged from library school acting like robot ant boys brainwashed with the latest trends (it's all people! it's all IT!) and virtually sneering at books finally left me with two options: go crazy or cut the Gordian Knot and start writing what I really thought. As a result, and kicked off by an article originally titled 'The Gordian Knot,' I delivered three years of suggestions about shooting CILIP senior management out of the shuttlebay doors of the USS Enterprise in their underpants, dumping MPs like Margaret Hodge in Sierra Leone, and marching on London to put the DCMS to fire and sword (I'm still up for that, incidentally). Why? Because reasoned argument appeared virtually useless against the irrational mentality of the herd. The same kind of herd behaviour which gave us the South Sea bubble and the dot.com crash. Tim Coates' figures show that books are on the up, but the CILIP/DCMS/ministerial herd are so irrationally and irrevocably set on being all things to all people (mainly via IT...) that I could and can see no actual way of changing them other than by revolution and/or ridicule. While I'd like to walk to London one day, my shoe leather is thin, so I've opted for ridicule. It's been fun, and it's been serious, but I would really like to know if there is anything else that can be done to at least stop these people doing yet more useless consultations?
Posted by: James Christie at December 29, 2009 2:52 PM