“It’s the only local place you can come without spending money,” she said. “It’s local and friendly. And it’s classless.”
I like libraries, used them as a kid, teenager and adult. Even worked in them. During my childhood, I spent a lot of my time reading where I was able to lose myself in the written word, conjure up fantasises and develop my own imagination. It was my place to be creative and feel safe from the world outside. I have good memories of those times. It was a place where I started to understand the importance of knowledge, and learning. I certainly gained more visiting the local library then my formative years at primary school. Libraries are an important function in this society, they are a collective means of reading and learning, and that access should be equal. To me they are a basic Socialist demand. People get access as well to technology such as the computers and the internet (Stats from 2009 show that 38 per cent of households owned a home computer and 30 per cent who had an internet connection are in the lowest income decile group compared with 98 per cent of households owning a home computer and 97 per cent having an Internet connection from highest income decile group). Therefore libraries are a fantastic public free resource and a necessity for learning and support.
Brilliant and vital libraries are nevertheless one of the first to experience savage cuts, as libraries seen as easy touch when it comes to balancing the books.
Brent is one of hundreds of councils planning to close public libraries in an attempt to meet huge cuts imposed by central government. Nearly 400 are threatened with closure, and with half of councils yet to announce their plans, the final number could be as many as 800 – a fifth of all libraries.
Furthermore
Libraries were already under siege before the recession struck. Although the number has stayed largely stable over the past decade at the 4,500 mark, there has been a relentless decline in library use. Some argue fewer people visit libraries because the core service – book lending – has been badly run.
Many campaigners warn that councils are choosing to keep larger urban libraries but scrap local branches relied on by those unable to travel easily – the elderly, the poor, parents with young children. More than 300m book loans were made from public libraries last year, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, yet there are libraries under threat in every part of the country.
Doncaster is set to lose 14 of its 26 libraries, with poorer areas most affected, said Joyce Sheppard of the Save Doncaster Libraries campaign. “Doncaster is such a poor area, with low attainment in literacy, and these cuts matter,” she said.
In Somerset the council is proposing to close 20 out of 34 libraries. Conwy, north Wales, is aiming to close seven of 12. Croydon, south London, is to lose five. A day of action on 5 February will see “read-ins” at many of the threatened libraries in areas including Lewisham, south-east London, and North Yorkshire, with local authors joining readers, librarians and councillors to show support in quiet, family-friendly demonstrations. Others are planning flashmobs, YouTube videos, and picketing.
And indeed the previous Labour government weren’t adverse to indulging in library cuts and closures. But what has been highlighted is that currently libraries are under threat in every part of the country. Funnily enough, while Labour was pushing for cuts Tories made impassioned pleas to defend libraries. Yet once in power they too are trumpeting the need for savage cuts. So much for impassioned defences of public services.
Oh yes, this also brings in the Big Society Con with turbo-charged drive to privatise and cut. Starving libraries of funding (which has been happening over the years), flogging them off, involving the voluntary sector specifically volunteers, which in itself is a wholesale attack on terms and conditions, driving wages down, by deskilling work using untrained and unpaid labour.
In the spirit of the “big society”, local communities will be offered the chance to run them instead, but this would be an “absolute disaster”, according to children’s author and Oxfordshire resident Mary Hoffman. “Libraries need qualified librarians, and I don’t see volunteers rushing forward in some of the areas Oxfordshire has chosen to target. It’s vandalism.”
Where’s the accountability and transparency in this Big Society Con? How will these volunteers be chosen? These proposals have a real hideous nasty whiff nay stench of the Victorian. This is about precisely about privatising public services. Libraries are a way to collectivise learning, finding out about the world, access to books, in an equal way. And when you look at how much of a budget is spent on libraries, well it is a drop in the financial ocean! Furthermore, at a time of recession and ferocious cuts, all these benefits are of greater importance. Good local libraries become more relevant to people’s needs, not less.
The cuts will have an immeasurable impact on learning. Libraries give equal access to education but the erosion due to cuts will create a society where the poor will not have the same access as people with money.
Good piece! I’ve long held that fewer people enrolling at Uni wouldn’t be so bad – many don’t gain much from going and would be much better served with shorter, more accessible courses or, indeed, self-education. How the bloody hell would they do that with no access to books?
“How the bloody hell would they do that with no access to books?”
Indeed!
“I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.”
(Carl Sagan)
“It’s the only local place you can come without spending money,” she said. “It’s local and friendly. And it’s classless.”
That explains why wealthy and corporate interests are always pushing their bought politicians to cut them.
Agree with you re libraries, BUT those stats. The households with low income and no Web/computer are overwhelmingly likely to be pensioners. Now that’s a pity, but there’s a cultural dimension there – a lot of oldies don’t see what they’ll get from the internet – and it’s a hefty one-off sum, plus connection charges, all for something ‘I wouldn’t know what to do with’.
Once they take the plunge, of course, they can become as keen as any teen.
(I was IT governor at my kids primary. Couldn’t remember any kids who didn’t have computer at home, except a couple of very Catholic families and one very bright Jain woman who wanted her children to read, not play games. They only got a computer when the eldest was doing GCSEs).
Completely agree Harpy, love the quote judge. As a teacher I see the impact of reading on youngsters and with some of the young ones I teach who I send on extra reading classes you can see the growth in a person when their confidence in reading increases. Also as a youngster I would be dropped off in the local library for the time it took for my parents to do the shopping. I get excited seeing second hand bookshops and libraries just thinking of all the thoughts from people I would never have a connection to otherwise. No matter how many internet pieces I read or how much TV I watch I dont think any will be as informative or well referenced as some of the books you read. I’d go as far as to say that cutting out libraries is liking admitting the defeat of culture and the dominance of the state and the market alone. If you educate people to be sheep you will get sheep.