Monday, February 7, 2011

Libraries – They’re for adults too

Leicestershire isn’t (apparently) being badly hit by library closures. Opening hours will be cut and some jobs probably cut with them; the city centres two libraries (reference and lending) are being amalgamated – mostly at the expense of the reference side as apparently nobody looks at those books (you can’t take them out, but you help yourself from the shelf, so I’m not sure how they tell), and the English language section is being shrunk in favour of more books that better reflect the mix of languages spoken here. (Which I believe is a good thing – proportional representation seems fair.)


Honestly I don’t use my local library much for fiction – it’s a long time since it’s had much to offer me so a lot of the proposed changes won’t affect me at all. It’s been my choice to spend what spare money I have on buying books to read when suits me which is probably just as well as book buying budgets are due to be slashed (probably to the point where they’re on a par with my limited personal resources). Closing the library altogether would cause me real problems though and this is what I feel strongly about.

So far most of the discussions around the fate of libraries that I’ve read seem to focus on children and childhood. We all have happy memories of visiting them as children, me included, and yes it’s a joy I would prefer that future generations get to share but just for a bit can we ignore the children. I get worked up to the point that I shout at the radio/television/newspaper when another MP or councillor justifies closing libraries by declaring that much as they *want* to keep them open if it’s a choice between a library and care for a sick child...

Well I don’t have children, won’t be having children, and feel that other people’s children are getting their fair share of my tax pounds; I want to see some of that left over money spent on services that materially affect people like me. In 2008 I was made redundant twice, the first time was messy and at the time I had no internet (or computer access at all) at home. I spent a frantic week researching my rights in the library, and communicating with more experienced friends via the libraries free pc’s. When I lost the second job (don’t you just love a recession) going to the library to read the job pages and again use the computers gave my life much needed structure.

That unfortunate series of job events meant that my mortgage insurance was useless and one way or another if my lovely mother hadn’t been able to support me through that year I’d have lost everything. After all that tax paying the only service I was actually able to use was the library, and it was courtesy of the library that I found the add and was able to apply for the job I now have. During that year I think I got a pretty good idea of the sort of people who used the place – plenty looking for work like me, some seemingly looking for internet brides (disconcerting), many there to read the papers, some clearly studying, lots communicating with absent family and friends, and a lot of pensioners. It’s also one of the few places in the town centre where I see a really representative mix of the population.

At a time when unemployment is so high it seems to me worth protecting the places that help the job seeker, and at a time when the money in your pocket is worth less then ever we really need to protect the places the uncomfortably off can go. It’s not just about children and fiction; it’s about desperate and frightened people wondering how to pay the bills needing information as much as they need entertainment but somehow we don’t seem to be talking about these library users and their needs.



15 comments:

  1. Excellent points! When I first moved back to the UK I would have been lost without the internet facilities in the local library. I "still" tend to think libraries should be primarily about the printed word, but can see I'm not considering the other services they offer.

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  2. I think they should be about the printed word too, but they offer so much more and all of it is important. I'm wondering how this post will read back to me tomorrow when I'm worked up about something else though!

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  3. I think you make an excellent point, Hayley. Libraries are much more than just books, and the services they offer to people who rely on them are rarely available elsewhere. The problem with most of the library services being cut is that they tend to be in rural areas where people with no transport - such as those on limited incomes or the elderly - truly will be cut off without them. It's not just about who borrows books - it's about who needs a warm place to spend a few hours in the company of others, who needs to look up job adverts, who needs a quiet place away from a crowded home to study. These spaces aren't mandatory for the state to supply, of course, but I wish value wasn't always calculated in financial terms.

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  4. I am so behind you in this. As a retired individual living on a fixed income I would be lost without the libraries. I do have a little spare cash at the moment to spend on books, but that has to be reserved for the ones that I know I'm likely to want to return to. Those that I'm going to read once and then store simply in memory or on the blog, have to come through the library system. At the moment, we don't know what's going to happen Birmingham libraries. I can only hope that they will find ways of making saving that don't prioritise one section of the community over any other.

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  5. Excellent points as the others have said; it's nice to have somewhere to go to when you are unemployed or underemployed as I was in 2006. Plus for me as an adult they are priceless; imagine how much I'd spend on books if I couldn't go so often - I guess I just wouldn't read.

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  6. I couldn't agree more, Hayley. I'm thinking about my (distant) retirement when I don't expect to have much cash to splash - I hope there will still be libraries for me to use!

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  7. I took full advanatge of Leicester Library services as a young adult, waiting for buses, researching for my studies, actually studying, borrowing maps for trips out & about and adding to what became a significant collection of recorded albums. At the time a lack of experience led me to believe that this is what all library services are like, more years than I'd like to admit later I realise that this isn't the case, Leicestershire's library service is exceptional. My point is, is that it shouldn't be and as times are getting harder for all we should think past the headline 'sick child Vs library' and look at the bigger picture. I read today that my local MP has made a legimate claim for a taxi to drive a distance less than the walk from my house to the library, the £51 could have bought a few books (both adult & childrens)and the exercise might have also made her a saving in gym fees, so here's a thought why don't we make MP's have the same rules about claiming for taxi's as applies to children walking to school (nothing under 3 miles) and direct the money saved into the library services, thus still leaving money for the sick children?
    Sorry I appear to have ranted abit there, but I absolutely agree with you Hayley, there are a lot things we should put before cutting the library service.

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  8. I agree with you entirely. This is an another short-sighted action that will be of no benefit to anyone. As you have observed, they offer so much more than "just " books. They are a vital cog in the community and anyone who thinks that making them obsolete is a wise idea is just a buffoon.

    I work with young people who are marginalised and at the bottom of the pecking order. As a professional, I can't tell you how often a library has provided inspiration, education, warmth and possibilities to the young person and I. I have had wonderful librarians cancel fines -one of whom enabled a young girl in a hostel to read to her newborn baby. I have met with the Service Manager for Culture and Arts and his team- who have always shared information and opened up educational opprtunities to my organisation and young people. They represent a vital part of community learning, development and imagination. They provide educational opportunities to those who are frightned by mainstream choices and involve all ages of people in journalism, media, story telling, community activities and the documentation and preservation of identity and humanity .

    In short, keep your mitts off the libraries and try placing the individual at the heart of decisions made.

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  9. It seems we're all agreed... it would be a much poorer world without libraries , and yet again it will be the poorer among us who suffer when they close. I might choose to buy my books now (cheap and second hand for the most part) but always assumed that libraries would be there for me when even that choice is taken away.

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  10. Well said!

    I think all this library closure is going to affect the local councils in ways they just cannot imagine.

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  11. Perfectly put. I hope you don't mind if I link to this post - your last paragraph in particular says it perfectly.

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  12. Thank you Nymeth - and feel free to link. I think Josbookjourney says it best - it's hard to imagine the impact of losing libraries will have. They're not a luxary.

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  13. Good points. On a similar note, many Citizen's Advice Bureau's are closing, something that I have the same issue with. It's all too easy to take these things away but much more difficult to see them ever coming back.

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  14. Novel Insights - they all sound like such little things but the over all effect is devestating. I found the citizans advice bureau's local to me to hard to get hold of - odd opening hours and the need to make appointments way in advance. Using the library meant access to information and people who could point me in helpfull directions, so I left the CAB to people who really needed it. I wonder what the pressure on the services that remain will do. I can't imagine it will be pretty.

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  15. Shortsighted or what? It's time someone forked out to buy the Big Society a new pair of glasses.

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