Congratulations to Gloucester and Somerset public libraries

As many of you may know, Somerset and Gloucester have ruled library cuts unlawful. This means that both councils will need to look at the closures somewhat differently. It was interesting how Cilip, The Guardian and BBC reported this.
Anyhow, congratulations one and all. Especial mention to for one campaignor who said this after the case:-

Gloucestershire residents should never have had to go through this stressful, upsetting and expensive process and serious questions now also need to be answered by the secretary of state Ed Vaizey. It is Mr Vaizey’s duty to intervene when authorities are not meeting their obligations to provide a library service available to all who wish to use it. Why were Gloucestershire County Council allowed to continue down this destructive path? In opposition Mr Vaizey was a vocal critic of library closures yet our many pleas for help have been ignored whilst library users were left to fight this alone – it is clear that he left his convictions at the door on entering office.

Go get 'em........

3 years on

3 years ago today my brother was murdered. Its not really a day I enjoy, but one I seldom forget. Thankfully, I'm away on holiday from tomorrow, so that helps. I'll be thinking of you Jody.

Possible library job losses In Warwickshire

The BBC website reports Warwickshire libraries could face 120 job cuts. The report says:-

Library staff in Warwickshire have been told the council is looking to make 50 full-time posts redundant.

That could result in up to 120 of them losing their jobs as many people work part-time.

More bad news.

BBC in Epicfail on public library closures in Morning news

Waking to the BBC breakfast news, I was interested in the piece on the public library closures. After watching it i'm more disheartened by the ineptitude of the BBC's reporting (iplayer piece here, thanks to wikiman). I thought the BBC was about balanced and fair reporting? Well I was wrong.
The report looked at the possible 375 closures countrywide. Mentioned the 250,000 drop in users. The second statement is total wrong. As Ned Potter wrote:-

For example, in the last year use of the library by black and
ethnic minority groups has increased; use of the library
by non-Christian religious people has increased; and the
number of 5 to 10 year olds who claim to have visited
their library ‘in the last week’ has increased (by more than
20%!). In other words, even during a down-turn in overall
visitation, kids and some minority groups are finding more
reasons to visit than before – I think that’s good news…
Incidentally, the report says more than once, ‘The decrease
in library visits is consistent across all socio-demographic
groups.’ Maybe I’m missing something, but that seems
quite a sweeping statement in light of the statistics above.
If the report itself glosses over any positives, what hope is
there of the headlines picking up on anything other than
the negatives?
In May, three months before the DCMS released their
report, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accountancy released their own survey (CIPFA, 2010)
on exactly the same subject, amid far less fanfare. Their
findings cover the same five year period, but make much
better reading. Both surveys find physical attendance to be
down by around 4%; the difference is, CIPFA took the time
to investigate online activity as well. This, they discovered,
was up by a massive 49% across the country in the last year
alone.

The BBC then BRIEFLY mentioned the closures in Gloucester (even though it had spoken to friends of gloucestershire libraries about this segment of news). It then proceeded to mention the Buckinghamshire experiment in which 14 of the libraries are now volunteer run. A few questions were asked if user liked it and they said it was fine (thanks BBC, a free party political broadcast for big society there). They then asked the person in charge of the volunteers if it worked. He said yes, but that it took 60 volunteers, free time and pre-requisite skillset. A brief mention was then made of Stony Stratford patrons withdrawing all library books to stop the library closing.

That was it.

No mentions of people trying to stop these closures. Like Voices of the library, Save Doncaster Libraries, Barnet Libraries, Save Somerset's Libraries amongst others. No mention was made of the use of Twitter support for libraries snowballs worldwide. The whole social web and everything that librarians and patrons have done, totally ignored even though they contacted some of these people.

Funny really, that when the BBC had to close Radio 6 the BBC loved pointing out people trying to stop the closure, using the voice of Jarvis Cocker to do so. No mention of the open letter by authors such as Philip Pullman, Kate Mosse & Michael Holroyd against closures.

Anyhow, for those who wish to complain about this dire reporting the link is here.

Scottish Libraries first to have ebook dowloads

South Ayrshire have become the first in the country to offer a free downloadable "ebooks" service. Link to the interview is here.

Today programme discussing libraries

Yesterday, Today reporter Bob Walker went to Nottingham and Grimsby to look at the effect library cuts would have upon patrons, and what can be done to preserve them. Link here.

Good news about libraries.......shock, horror

After the sadness about 10 library closures in Belfast, in which I stated 'maybe one day I'll have some good news on this blog.' Well, the BBC reports 'Libraries in Wales see borrowing rise, against UK trend'. Its seems, in Wales, there's been a 3.7% increase in usage of libraries.

Job cuts in Hampshire

The axe is being wielded in hampshire public libraries it seems. The BBC reports Sixty Hampshire library service jobs to be cut.
The article says:-

The authority needs to save more than £1m but has promised not to reduce opening hours or close any libraries.

The plans could see more self-service facilities at branches while a further review will also look into the mobile library service.

Affected staff, which include managers and workers in support roles, have been told of the plans.

The importance of phones......130 years on

Radio 3 last night had a programme entitled The Pleasure Telephone (available to UK users here) which discussed how the love of telephones is nothing new, and how in the 1880's people could have a telephone fairly cheaply. Sounded quite similar to Tom Standage's book The Victorian Internet.

The changing face of public libraries

Seems there is a change a foot with public libraries in the uk (haven't we heard that before?) With Free internet access and e-books could help reverse a decline in the number of people using libraries in England or so Culture Minister Margaret Hodge says. But I thought we were already doing that? And E-books? Please, the price of entry is still prohibitive for many users (aka that thing called 'the working classes'?)
Department for Culture Media and Sport also released the report here on this idea.
Seems its been canned already to.

£40 book token or your library?

With the economic downturn and likelihood of the 25,000 job losses due to council tax reductions. Seems Radio 5 discussed what councils should be saved and let go.

Here's the best idea though:-

Northamptonshire County Council, for instance, says that so few people use its libraries (17%), that it would be cheaper to give everyone a £40 book voucher.

Oh, can I have them as Amazon tokens please?

British Library to archive defunct UK websites

The British Library is to launch a UK Web Archive. The BL website says of it:-

Dame Lynne Brindley, [said] this project demonstrates the importance and value of the nation's digital memory.
Websites included in the UK Web Archive include:
The Credit Crunch - initiated in July 2008, this collection contains records of high-street victims of the recession - including Woolworths and Zavvi.
Antony Gormley's 'One & Other' Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth Project - involving 2,400 participants and streamed live by Sky Arts over the web to an audience of millions, this site will no longer exist online from March 2010.
2010 General Election - work has started to preserve the websites of MPs such as Derek Wyatt, who will be retiring at the next election, creating a permanent record of his time as a Member of Parliament.
This important research resource has been developed in partnership with the National Library of Wales, JISC and the Wellcome Library, as well as technology partners such as IBM.

Brindley also discusses it here on the Today show.

Read? Isn't that a job website......or how Britain is losing another book shop

The recent news that Borders has gone into receivership is pretty sad news. As Indigo Jo points out, the one in Kingston upon Thames Will not be taken over by Waterstones like Ottakars was, as Waterstones has a flagship store at the Bentall centre. Even sadder will be the demise of the Borders at Angel.
Therefore in recent years booksellers have diminished. As mentioned earlier, Waterstones took over Ottakars. Borders took over Books etc, and duplicate shops closed. Know Borders is to close. In some places, a bookshop will no longer exist, and Waterstones will have a virtual monopoly [unless you live in London and have Foyles or Blackwells].
Obviously, with Amazon and other virtual providers providing books this is sad news for the UK. I'll miss Borders, it provided a welcome relief after shopping at the Bentall Centre.

Micromen review

Having the good fortune to have a day off from work, I had the opportunity to watch Micro Men, which I had mentioned last week. The programme looked at the early 1980's rivalry between Sir Clive Sinclair Spectrum computer and his former work colleague Chris Curry and his Acorn computers.
The programme is around an hour and half long, showing there declining relationship, there building new companies and empires, and in the British computing industry getting the most important contract of the early 1980's. This was the BBC computer literacy project. This was designed with an emphasis on education it was notable for its ruggedness, expandability and the quality of its operating system. Acorn won this competition in 1981 and with it, the computer was used on The Computer Programme.
In the next few years we see how fruitful the 2 companies become. Acorn, the programmers toy of choice, whilst the Spectrum is the gamers choice. But both are dissatisfied with there lot, as they want a share of each others market. When the fade of 1984 comes in, as computer aficionado's we know the computing world would never be the same.
Both colleagues take wrong turns, Curry with the doomed electron and Sir Clive's QL. When they finally meet for a drink Curry says 'If we joined together we could have taken on IBM.' Back then, as a teenager it felt like it could have happened.
I do feel this area is rarely covered by social and computer historians. In the 1980's we had great games like Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy by Matthew Smith, who made a fortune and disappeared to commune in Holland. Gaming companies like Imagine Software, who climbed great heights and went belly up before our eyes in a BBC documentary. Very few books have been written on this era excluding one on the Spectrum and a Chapter on the Game Elite (originally made for the BBC and then transported to the Spectrum). Its a shame really.
In all it is a melancholy trip down memory lane, of when we were young, were full of dreams and could take on the world. How middle age makes fools of us all.

E-books tested as British Library

(Via lisnews). Seems the BBC has been testing out E-books at the British Library. The technology reporter Simon Gompertz was :-

Working lunch's Simon Gompertz has visited the British Library and asked Librarians to give their opinions on electronic readers which have been designed to replace paper books.

Check the video, it has some interesting feedback. With the talk about the kindle, sony e-reader and the itouch/iphone