How depressing!!!!

This article in The Guardian entitled Libraries will rely on volunteers to survive, says report incredibly sad. This comes from the Learning from the Future Libraries Programme Phase one. Oh well. Another advancement under the great con/dem government.

Good news for Somerset......bad news for libraries and librarians

The BBC has reportrd three Somerset libraries set to stay open. The article says:-

Three out of six libraries due to lose funding from Somerset County Council in three months are set to stay open.

Six libraries in the county will have their funding stopped from 1 October and another five will have their funding stopped from next April.

Volunteers have stepped in to pay for and run libraries in Bishops Lydeard, Bruton and Porlock.

The Conservative-led council aims to save 25%, or £1.35m of the library budget.

I'm not really one for the volunteers in libraries thing. I thing it won't work as there is little financial. intellectual or social pay back for the volunteers. Also, they won't have the skillset for users on copyright issues etc. oh well.

Ed Milliband criticises David Cameron's big society

Labour leader Ed Milliband has criticised the David Cameron's big society in an article entitled Ed Miliband: The Big Society: a cloak for the small state. Milliband says of libraries in the article:-

But no one can volunteer at a library or a Sure Start centre if it's being closed down. And nor can this Conservative-led government build a Big Society while simultaneously undermining its foundations with billions of pounds worth of cuts to the voluntary sector. Those are not merely numbers on a piece of paper; they affect real people.........Mr Cameron should visit the local libraries in my constituency. These are not some monolithic institutions of crude Conservative caricature. They have classes for new mums and babies, after-school activities for young people, clubs for the elderly. They are owned by government but they nurture community. And now many of them are threatened with closure.

Good to see labour putting pressure on the Con-dem policies.

Cornwall library cuts agreed

As mentioned previously, Cornwall has been under increasing pressure to make budget cuts. It seems that libraries will have a 23% cuts. Lanson Boy has a good discussion about the debate here.

Librarians as activist

I've just been read Johanna Bo Anderson's blog post entitled Librarians Gagged. In the piece she discusses how in Gloucester she has started a website entitled Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries so as to stop a 43% cut in Library funding and closure of possibly up to 11 libraries.

Jo then write:-

Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries took part in a protest rally today with hundreds of other people protesting against brutal public sector cuts. A young lady who I had never met before approached me and said “My dad says your campaign website is great and everything but he says that maybe you should not say on it that you are a librarian.“ She is the third person to have individually advised me to stop telling the press that I am a librarian as it may seem as if I am running this group in self-interest. Well let me tell you something I AM A LIBRARIAN AND I AM PROUD, proud to be speaking up for libraries, library users and public library staff. In all three incidences I heard myself saying apologetically “But I am an academic librarian not a public librarian. If public libraries die, I still have my job“

What? So do we sit idly by and keep quite so a few of us MAY keep our jobs? Or do we organise ourselves in to a community of 'library activist' and show we think are jobs are still relevant to society? Jo and others are willing to use the own time, resources and attention to the cause. Jo is even a founding member of the Voices for the Library.

We need people like Jo and Lauren Smith to underline that many people still use public libraries. Once there closed there never coming back.

The (possible) closure of Cornish Libraries

I am presently in cornwall visiting family for the week, and it was with some sadness I read about the closures of a majority of cornish libraries here. One's such as the photo above could be closing. In the article talks about the possible closure of 23 t0 32 of cornwall libraries closing. My aunt, who lives in Mylor, near Falmouth has heard there maybe a closure of 20 in the local press. This is pretty worrying for a count that is large but sparsely populated. As yet, nothing has happened. I hope it doesn't but I will keep you informed.

Viral marketing of the library

(Found via here). NPR has an excellent article entitled 'Why the next big pop culture after cupcakes might be libraries'. The article looks at the impact of the viral marketing of libraries via the (excessively) meme'd Old Spice video and Lady Gaga also. The article looks at the positive article's that seem to being picked up, on the importance of libraries in this 'big society' no skills/pay/promotion world.
The article then looks at the positive impact of libraries on societies to. Obviously, people have to pay for them, but they do provide a cultural outlet for many users. But in Britain when I think of of Cameron, Conservatives and libraries I think of Goring:-

Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my browning.

Great article on Public libraries from the States

(Found via here). The go-to-hellman blog has a very insightful post entitled Are Public Libraries in a Death Spiral?. In the post he makes two very salient points when he writes:-

A favorite budget-cutting tactic of public library directors seems to be curtailment of opening hours ......To me, this seems like the worst possible thing for a public library to do. ........Public library funding comes from the public, and the best way to convince the public that their library deserves more funding is to get the public inside the library doors.

Public Broadcasting is a good example for public libraries (and a competitor for donor support). Does public radio turn off their transmitter when they need money? No, they put on specially good programming and have pledge drives. My local library puts donor names on bricks; I'd like to see libraries put donor names on opening hours.

Tough economic times are exactly when public libraries are needed the most. The assistance that libraries offer to people looking for work, training for new occupations, learning to read, or finding social networks makes public libraries valuable parts of their communities, but that doesn't happen when the doors are locked.

Would Britain be willing to pledge money to its libraries to increase hours? I doubt it. The Lib/con pact are looking at cuts, and what services we do provide will be reduced (in my mind). So, last one that leaves the library, please turn off the light.

The conservative policy on Libraries? We have the answer

For those of a squeamish disposition please turn away now. Seems the lovely lib/con pact is cutting into the library budgetby suspending the Libraries Modernisation Programme by £12m. All Ed Vaizey promises seem pretty hollow. Well, with Cameron as leader thats no surprise then?