If Brighton can do it …

News

• 15 reasons why bookstore/library partnerships are beneficial – Bookselling This Week (USA).  Libraries have the space, bookshops the contacts … and 14 more reasons.
• A-Level boy, 10, is off to Eton – London Evening Standard. 
• Gifted boy received top GCSE grade – Barking and Dagenham Post. “A star student who began reading aged three in one of Barking and Dagenham’s libraries has just been awarded a top GCSE grade at the age of nine.” … “My wife Ronke and I go there a lot to read the papers and the idea was for the children to be playing games. While in the library, he took to reading.”

• Katharine Whitehorn experience – Guardian.   “You probably know the conversation: about a library closing, or whether my bookshop people are as charming as yours; then someone will say in superior tones that surely it’s all easier and cheaper online…”.  Libraries are more social than Amazon.
• Michael Porter (Library Renewal) – This Week in Libraries (Netherlands).  “Michael has travelled for 4 years all across the USA visiting libraries and helping them to get online so he really knows libraries in all sizes and shapes and has seen the changes that took place. He has worked with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with OCLC and on Webjuncyion. We are now standing at the crossroads. There lies an enormous chance for a Library renaissance as the world may never have seen before. Michael and a group of great minds are discussing this and thinking of how this library can look like and what services it should offer and how it can bring people together.”
• Public libraries: a long overdue argument – What’s Next: Top Trends.   “Whether or not we will want libraries in the future I cannot say, but I can categorically state we will need them, because libraries aren’t just about the books they contain. Moreover, it is a big mistake, in my view, to confuse the future of books or publishing with the future of public libraries. They are not the same thing.”…”I’d say the answer to this is that public libraries are important because of a word that’s been largely ignored or forgotten and that word is Public.”

“In a world cluttered with too much instant opinion and we need good librarians more than ever. Not just to find a popular book, but to recommend an obscure or original one. Not only to find events but to invent them. The internet can do this too, of course, but it can’t look you in the eye and smile gently whilst it does it.”

• Three simple marketing rules all libraries should like by – theWikiman.   (1) Market the service, not the content (2) No one cares about the how (3) Market what they value, but continue to do what we value.
• Want to join a library? Have you had a sex change? – Telegraph.  “Councils are asking residents who want to borrow books from public libraries whether they have HIV, schizophrenia, or have had a sex change…”.  Islington, Brent and Leicestershie ask questions in order to tie in with equalities legislation, others don’t. Civitas and Taxpayer’s Alliance, as well as the article writer, think money and time could be spent better elsewhere.
• Want to join the library? Have you had a sex change? – BookTrade Info.

Changes

• Brighton & Hove – Refreshments and spaces with toys to be introduced in all libraries, free wifi at Jubilee Library.   
• Newham – Canning Town Library to incorporate Council one stop shop.

Local News

• Bolton – Area forums money could save libraries under threat – Bolton News.   Conservatives also want libraries to be run by charitable trusts and volunteers to work alongside libraries. 
• Bradford – Addingham library agreement set for signatures – Ilkey Gazette.  Volunteers hope to run library – which would otherwise have closed – from 1st October, already undergoing CRB checks.  
  
• Brighton & Hove – Shake-up promised for 16 Brighton and Hove libraries – Brighton and Hove News.   “Library users across Brighton and Hove are being promised more services and a better experience.  All 16 libraries in the city are to offer refreshments, have more modern computers and take action to tackle noise nuisance. The main Jubilee Library in Brighton is even to have free wifi.” … ““We think libraries are a crucial, core council service. So we’ll be actively pursuing opportunities for refurbishment or redevelopment of libraries.”
• Dorset – County fight to save libraries takes to the internet – Bridport News.   “The Women’s Institute has now launched an online petition calling on the government to ‘honour its commitment to act as a champion of the library service’. The Friends of Charmouth Library are signing the petition and are encouraging others to do the same.” … ““If the WI e-petition gets 100,000 signatures, the issue must be considered for parliamentary debate so the Secretary of State will no longer be able to hide behind excuses.”
• Lewisham – Reality of Lewisham’s independent libraries – Studio Living.   Crofton Library, now known as Crofton Community Hub, after being given to Eco Computer Systems, refused to allow a local Literary Festival to put a poster up without being charged.  Further investigation shows that the policy on this was still not clear at the time of asking.  The owner of the company running the library has since decided that local posters can be put up for free.