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perfect wagnerite
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« on: 14:42:22, 19-09-2008 » |
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Things are clearly changing in the once staid world of the public library ... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article4783690.eceProposals to increase use of public libraries include permitting the use of mobiles, allowing "customers" (as distinct from readers) to bring in food and drink, and opening up branches of Starbucks: In Camden, North London, the council’s library strategy is being overhauled from next month. A ban on mobile phones is to be lifted and users will be allowed to bring in snacks and drinks. Initiatives being considered include providing computer games.
Mike Clarke, head of libraries at the council, said that some of the changes were based on retail models, such as Virgin’s megastores, that encourage people to stay for long periods. He said: “It is all about improving the atmosphere of the libraries. We want to make them into a more relaxed space that people can feel more comfortable in. I don’t feel that they have to be totally silent.”
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In Hillingdon, West London, book borrowing rose 32 per cent when the council introduced a Starbucks café into one of its main libraries. Outlets of the coffee chain will start in all 17 of its libraries over the next year.
Henry Higgins, a Hillingdon councillor, said that patrons were also attracted by greater book diversity and Nintendo Wii video games that can be played on site. Mr Higgins said: “We looked at it and thought, why would anyone want to borrow a book from somewhere that looks dusty and antiquated? So we changed things.”
But aren't these inter alia the sorts of things one expects to get away from in libraries? Muzak? Smelly food? Inane conversations on mobile phones? I'd feel much happier at the return of the gimlet-eyed librarian of old, enforcing silence with a Paddington stare. |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #1 on: 15:01:56, 19-09-2008 » |
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"Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait..." 
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time_is_now
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« Reply #2 on: 15:03:25, 19-09-2008 » |
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This is quite the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day (possibly all week!). I can possibly see the argument for making local council libraries not look 'dusty and antiquated' (but even this argument falls apart as I think it through ... libraries need to have old books too. I suppose it could be left to the British Library and specialist libraries, to let local ones focus on more general reading matter ...), but 'video games that can be played on site'?  Well, I suppose if you turned the library into a football pitch or a brothel then you might attract new people to visit, but it wouldn't be a library any more, would it! |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #3 on: 15:27:42, 19-09-2008 » |
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I think as long as these libraries also have dedicated quiet spaces (and I mean dead silent, with soundproofing!), then I don't see a problem with these new ideas. Also, a bump in the pay for the janitorial (custodial) staff.
Libraries are great places to go. Sometimes I don't go because I happen to want a coffee! (Though not from Charbucks, needless to say). I just hope these libraries don't get the idea to restrict "outside foods" the way cafes and restaurants (rightly) do.
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IgnorantRockFan
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« Reply #4 on: 15:47:09, 19-09-2008 » |
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I went in the Lit & Phil (biggest subscription (members-only) library outside London) for the first time last weekend and was astounded to see an elderly couple at a reading desk with cups of tea and a plate of biscuits. But then it struck me as being quite civilised. And if you're a paying member of the library, you're hardly going to drop crumbs on the books, are you? But there was no doubt that it was still a library, not a cafe. Add a television set, mobile phones, and video games, and I wouldn't be so sure any more...  If I wanted a cafe I would go to a cafe... |
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Allegro, ma non tanto
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HtoHe
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« Reply #5 on: 15:58:18, 19-09-2008 » |
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Well, I suppose if you turned the library into a football pitch or a brothel then you might attract new people to visit, but it wouldn't be a library any more, would it!
I'm afraid the fact is that most of them aren't what people of my generation came to think of as libraries, t_i_n; but I suppose that, logically, if it stores and lends books, it has a right to call itself a library. I gave up visiting libraries long before the computers moved in as my (then) local library came to resemble a community centre rather than a quiet space for reading books, periodicals, newspapers etc. I did ask if they were going to do anything about the people who were holding conversations as if they were in a pub but I was told they needed to appeal to all sections of the community, especially those who had nowhere to go. The argument that this meant there was now nowhere for anyone to go if they lived in noisy accommodation and wanted somewhere where they could read in peace just didn't seem to make sense to them. I'm afraid that to 'remember what peace there may be in silence' is no longer fashionable; indeed it's often, quite outrageously, portrayed as anti-social, as if the mere desire for places to exist where people can go to escape the noise of the outside world represented an active attempt to stifle communication. The same is true of wanting there to be restaurants/hostelries where one can confidently expect to avoid the company of children. Oh dear, I'm starting to come across as a grumpy old man! |
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time_is_now
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« Reply #6 on: 16:02:21, 19-09-2008 » |
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Oh, I agree there's plenty of room for intelligent re-consideration of what can make a library a comfortable environment. Some of these ideas seem quite good: just not all of them!
I'd be a little wary of suggesting such changes were a favour to the janitorial/custodial staff until I knew 'a bump in the pay' was really what they were looking for (or, indeed, what they were going to get: who's funding the pay rise? ...). Most(?) library staff in the UK, as far as I'm aware, are either qualified librarians with degrees in librarianship, or postgraduate students who welcome the opportunity to earn a salary sitting in a quiet environment where they can get some of their own reading done while simultaneously doing a public service.
That was in reply to TF and IRF. Just seen HtoHe's post: I do sympathise, HtoHe. Churches are good places to be quiet, aren't they? Or are they all locked up or turned into community centres now, too?
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Antheil
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« Reply #7 on: 16:24:11, 19-09-2008 » |
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I used to spend hours and hours in our library where I grew up, it was a wonderful place.
Our local library where I am now moved from the centre to the edge of town, so no longer convenient to pop into when on lunch break or shopping. Unfortunately they are reducing their opening hours quite significantly, have scrapped late night openng as well. Perhaps because people don't go to libraries for peace and books anymore they have to introduce new attractions?
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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pim_derks
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« Reply #8 on: 17:33:57, 19-09-2008 » |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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owain
Posts: 52
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« Reply #9 on: 20:34:50, 19-09-2008 » |
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I'd be a little wary of suggesting such changes were a favour to the janitorial/custodial staff until I knew 'a bump in the pay' was really what they were looking for (or, indeed, what they were going to get: who's funding the pay rise? ...). Most(?) library staff in the UK, as far as I'm aware, are either qualified librarians with degrees in librarianship, or postgraduate students who welcome the opportunity to earn a salary sitting in a quiet environment where they can get some of their own reading done while simultaneously doing a public service. That's a laughable description of the staff a typical public library service can expect to be able to recruit. Quite where the source of all these postgraduates is for libraries outside of large towns and cities isn't quite clear...or, to put it another way, this is from a randomly-selected Library Assistant advert on the Jobcentre website: "Essential qualifications: ECDL, CLAIT, or ability to demonstrate use of the internet and email; Desirable qualifications - NVQ in Customer Services or similar, GCSE Maths and English A-C" (That's advertised by Plymouth City Council, if anybody's interested.) Plus, there's no way any service gets away with having staff sitting around doing their own reading, not when even the Lib Dems are promising billions of public service spending cuts. |
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #10 on: 20:51:46, 19-09-2008 » |
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In the smallish town where my Dad works as a Library Assistant, most of his fellow Assistants are retired people.
Quite aside from the joy of being surrounded by books and finding a new love in reading (and being perfectly placed to discover new books), he has enjoyed, after an entire career in an office, meeting new people.
He says that the library functions as a hub for the community for all ages.
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #11 on: 22:27:00, 19-09-2008 » |
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t_i_n, I meant the janitors would have to be better paid because they will have more work to do mopping up food particles.
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time_is_now
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« Reply #12 on: 22:28:10, 19-09-2008 » |
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Ignore me, TF. I was talking out of my a**e anyway. Owain is much more on the ball.
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #13 on: 13:13:52, 09-10-2008 » |
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So it's official - the Minister for Culture believes libraries are places to "chat, drink coffee and watch videos": http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sombre-libraries-need-chatter-and-coffee-shops-minister-says-955493.htmlA spokesman at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said the Government wanted to transform the atmosphere of libraries to make them more similar to Waterstones stores.
Earlier, Mr Burnham that said providing more funding was not realistic in the current climate but added that libraries could still be revamped. He suggested that the traditional "silence" in libraries be reviewed and opening hours extended.
"Libraries should be a place for families and joy and chatter. The word chatter might strike fear into the heart of traditionalists but libraries should be social places that offer an antidote to the isolation of someone playing on the internet at home."
Campaigners said Mr Burnham was dodging the real issue of underfunding that had plagued libraries for years.
Tim Coates the former managing director of Waterstones and a libraries campaigner said: "This ought to be about getting more reading books, particularly for children, not about turning libraries into fish and chip shops."
So, what's the deal for people who want somewhere to read quietly and obtain books? Don't they get a look in? |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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richard barrett
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« Reply #14 on: 13:31:34, 09-10-2008 » |
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So, what's the deal for people who want somewhere to read quietly and obtain books? Don't they get a look in?
Er, no, because libraries actually don't have that many books these days. I've said this ad nauseam no doubt, but: my early musical education (learning to read scores, getting to know the repertoire) was largely the result of my weekly visits to the Swansea public library, which had a fantastic selection of LPs, everything from organum to Kagel (who was next to unknown in the UK in the 1970s I would say) and a reasonably wide selection of scores. The breadth of listening and learning I was able to do there would be impossible now even in the central public libraries of the larger cities. This is the usual story of chronic underinvestment, and undervaluing of public services as such. This latest bombshell is of course a step in the direction of making them into "businesses". Shame on the mean and cynical minds who thought it up. |
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« Last Edit: 13:36:33, 09-10-2008 by richard barrett »
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