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August 8, 2011
Who is behind the closure of community libraries?
"...chief librarians are, indeed, advising councils that small community libraries should be closed, divested or otherwise wrecked. This is NOT a new thing, by the way. And they are still doing it ! Now, that's not the whole profession, but it's those at the top of it. Do hard-working library assistants and librarians agree with it ? No, they most likely don't, but are gagged. I wish that even one individual in the SCL (The Society of Chief Librarians) who disapproves would speak up, that CILIP (The librarians' professional body) would publicly condemn it,"
From a comment on this site yesterday
Posted by Perkins at August 8, 2011 7:26 AM
Comments
Volunteers running libraries is a barbaric notion says Edinburgh library chief http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2011/08/volunteers-running-libraries-is.html
Posted by: Shirley Burnham at August 11, 2011 6:21 AM
Yes, that's all very well but it does not mean that this "Edinburgh library chief" would hesitate for very long, if at all, before carrying out an official instruction from the local politicians to begin using volunteers in his/her public library.
If you know I'm wrong, then show me.
Posted by: Frank Daniels at August 13, 2011 9:34 PM
i know that the Edinburgh library chief is an agreeable person who regards herself as progressive, but I, too take note of some of the odd things that have happened in the past in Edinburgh libraries. I also disagree fairly profoundly with her when she approves of the government's report stress on the social role of libraries without understanding that at its heart that social role depends on books and the material available. She writes as if the social role were somehow a separate thing- as if libraries were social centres- and I don't think they are at all. Nor do I understand where the approval for this view originates - although I recognise that it is widely held, not by library users, but by senior librarians and officials.
When, in the press, authors write about the importance of saving libraries, they generally are talking about books and reading- not prescription services for the NHS and other nonsense of that kind.
Posted by: perkins at August 15, 2011 9:29 PM