The barring of payday loan sites, websites perfectly legal in the UK, has gone ahead in Cheshire East.  It is the first council in England to do so and the third in the UK (Dundee did the same last December).  While there are probably not multitudes who love such websites, it does raise the question of what may get barred next.  Such sites are, of course, perfectly legal in the UK.  Of course, UK libraries already bar porn sites (unlike their US counterparts) so the precedent has already been there fo quite a while … but it will be interesting to see what next, if anything, gets barred and for what reason.

Changes

News

  • Brooklyn library almost visited by a meta Kanye West – Melville House (USA).  Someone claiming to be Kanye’s publicist says he is visiting library.  Mayhem ensues.
  • E-book royalty debate reignited – BookSeller. “Author Nick Harkaway has called for authors to be offered a greater share of royalties from e-book sales, after HarperCollins parent News Corp published an investor presentation that showed the publisher could potentially make greater profits from the sale of e-bohttps://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpoks when compared to print books.”
  • Grant Shapps: councils can take another 10% cut – Guardian.  Councils have managed to take a 26% cut without severely affecting frontline services so they should be able to take another 10% cut says former housing minister.
  • Reading Agency calls for partnership between schools and libraries – Reading Agency (press release). “The arguments about the importance of reading for pleasure have been won, thanks to several key pieces of research from OECD and Oxford University showing just how critical enjoying reading is to literacy acquisition.  But schools can’t do this alone.  A drive to inspire children to enjoy reading has to be systemic, reaching across home, school and the community. I believe the time is right for a new era of partnership working – pubic libraries’ community reading support should be factored into schools’ reading for pleasure policies, alongside the support of schools library services.”  Miranda McKearney, CEO”
  • Reference lives on, no question – Chicago Tribune (USA). “the neighborhood reference desk lives. Nay, thrives. But not how you remember it.” .. “We Google,” Smolin said. “We use Wikipedia. But we remind people, those are only starting points.” The goal of reference desks, Heath said, has become “informational literacy, seeing reference in a broader sense, pointing people toward reputable sources. We often get patrons who’ve exhausted the Internet.” Or been exhausted by it.”
  • Younger Americans still use public libraries, survey finds – Los Angeles Times (USA). “People in their 20s and older teens are just as likely as older Americans to have visited a public library in the last year — and about as likely to have taken out books or browsed the shelves once they got there, a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds. Nearly two out of three said they had a library card. Young people do use libraries differently from older adults: They are nearly twice as likely to have used computers and the Internet there, and much more likely to have hung out in libraries to study or read, Pew found. They were less likely to have gotten help from a librarian.”

Local News

  • Brent – Community library in Wembley launches summer reading campaign – Brent and Kilburn Times.  Paperbacks being sold for 50p. “We are slashing the cost of reading and the 50p donation per book will all go towards the costs of the reopened Library in Barham Park.” Since FOBL opened their library in August last year they have received thousands of book donations from hundreds of residents. FOBL have raised the £25,000 needed to make a bid for the closed branch in the last year but it was turned down by the council.”
  • Cheshire East – Access to payday loan websites to be blocked at libraries – Macclesfield Express. “Cheshire East is to restrict access to the lenders’ sites from public computers at all council buildings, including libraries. They have become the first authority in England to take the step, and only the third in the UK to do so. The council’s cabinet voted unanimously in favour of the idea at their meeting at Macclesfield town hall yesterday. A report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) revealed ‘widespread irresponsible lending’ in the market with the 50 biggest firms being given 12 weeks to change their practices or risk losing their licence.”
  • Lincolnshire – Petition to save Deepings Library from closure attracts 500 signatures – Rutland and Stamford Mercury. “Andrew Bowell, a Deeping St James parish councillor, set up an online petition on Friday and also has copies of the petition at the library and the Spar shop in Godsey Lane, Market Deeping. He has also been going door-to-door to find out what people think of the plans. So far, more than 500 people have signed the petition.”.  Petition is here.
  • Lincolnshire – Campaigners opposed to £2m Lincolnshire libraries cuts plans – Lincolnite. “Campaigners to save Lincolnshire’s libraries from the County Council’s plans to scale down the service and save almost £2 million warned that parts of the county could become ‘library deserts’.”

“My initial reaction was shock — we know this has happened in other parts of the country, and libraries are under threat, but I thought Lincolnshire was safe. I thought library services in Lincolnshire were small enough and efficient enough to escape this. Based on first impressions, the things that stand out are the proposals to cut the schools’ library budget to zero, so there’ll be no money allocated at all to provide a library service to schools, which is quite shocking. Also, because Lincolnshire is a such big rural county, it leaves whole areas with no coverage at all.”

  • Moray – Library consultation draws to a close – Northern Scot. “About 2,000 people had a say as part of the equality impact assessments, triggered in February when the authority announced the closure of Cullen, Portknockie, Findochty, Dufftown, Rothes, Burghead and Hopeman libraries under its budget for the coming year. It is further proposed that one of the council’s two mobile libraries will be taken off the road.”
  • Newcastle – Community fights to keep Blakelaw library – Chronicle. “Members of the Blakelaw Ward Community Partnership hope a proposal they have worked on will save their lcoal library from closure, with the group taking part responsibility for its future.” … ““There could be a creche facility and office space, and that income would be put back into the centre, which would include the library.”
  • Newport – I’m boycotting librrary service – South Wales Argus.  User complains that she cannot easily renew books unless the council phoneline is open and criticises the 27p per day late fine.
  • Oxfordshire – Deal agreed to keep library running after staffing cuts – Henley Standard. “The Friends of Benson Library group has provisionally agreed staffing arrangements following four months of negotiations with Oxfordshire County Council.
    The library in Castle Square is one of 16 due to lose half their staff funding from the council. “

“The bottom line is that the library’s future depends on the public. I want people to turn up to show support for what we have done and give us a good indication that we have done the right thing. We are past the protest stage, it is now about doing what needs to be done.””