The Minister for Culture, Margaret Hodge has been at it again. Celebrating Labour's keeness for dumbing down I mean. This time she was addressing the Association of London Chief Librarians. She told delegates that although spending on libraries had risen by 17 per cent in the past ten years, the number of books borrowed had dropped by 34 per cent.
I can give Ms Hodge an explanation as to why the number of books borrowed from public libraries has dropped. My local library suffered (I use the word advisedly) a make-over about 18 months ago. Gone are librarians (customer assistants now, mostly volunteers, mostly part-time, none of 'em trained librarians). Books and other media are checked in and out via a self-service electronic machine. But the worse part of the new library is that the book stock was reduced by nearly two-thirds. Basically, there are fewer books to borrow. This library appears geared for the under 25 image and not word obsessed 'yoof culture'. Heaps and stacks of CD's, Playstation games and 'graphic novels' but precious few books one actually would like to read. And a bias towards 'Mills & Boon' and 'Ethnic literature'.
Mrs Hodge thinks that libraries are 'not in touch' with modern culture (whatever that is) and should site themselves in shopping malls and supermarkets and invite Starbucks, Costa or whoever to host a library in their shops. Libraries should issue loyalty cards to encourage book borrowing.
Tim Coates, former managing director of Waterstone’s and author of the library report Who’s in Charge? Responsibility for the Public Library Service, said: “Book collections have become poor to the point of uselessness and that is a problem which is not addressed by clubcards or Costa coffee shops. Good coffee doesn’t make a poor bookshop into a good one – and neither will it do so for a library.” I agree entirely with Mr. Coates. We do need better investment in our public libraries which means more, and more books, not less. The Minister of Culture also called for libraries to provide a web-based lending service with home delivery, allowing books to be borrowed in Bromley and returned in Barnet. Preempting questions about how her proposals would be funded, she said that “there ought to be scope for efficiencies through greater collaboration”. There is a story of a large London Borough which commissioned an expensive consultancy on the local library service. Apparently the principle consultant visited the Chief Librarian in the central library to discuss the prelimminary findings. As the meeting drew to its close the consultant, looking around at his surroundings commented that the central library embraced exactly all the problems that encapsulated the public library service in that borough - far too many books on long and high shelving. You couldn't make it up!
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