Jollies

Comment

“I’m sorry to see SCL and its members being castigated for demonstrating a very professional approach. They absolutely should be engaged with the government on the subject of cuts; councillors impose cuts and SCL work to minimise their impact. On the subject of libraries’ day, it’s surely an opportunity for the public, the press, the arts community et al to celebrate what libraries do, day-in, day-out. With budgets cut to the bone and jobs, stock and opening hours under threat, who could justify spending money on bunting, face painting and other jollies.” Anonymous comment on this website.

“You can of course tell them [the public] about the planned activities already scheduled [in other times of the year] to take place in your library and invite them to become a library volunteer if they wish to play an active role in the year ahead”

 Somerset: Watchet Library Friends are doing more on the day than all of Kent.

“Berlucchi said 92% of the 1.3m e-readers estimated to have been sold in the UK over Christmas were Kindles. He said the use of DRM helped Amazon consolidate its position. “Amazon uses DRM to lock people in. You can’t take the files out. The problem is that if you go down the Amazon road, you can’t drop out. If you drop out of Kindle, you lose all your books. They [Amazon] are using DRM to build their silos, like Apple did in the beginning with the iPod, which is how they [Apple] dominated the music market,” he said.” Anobii chief says drop DRM to fight Amazon – BookSeller. 

“I recognise that libraries must modernise and I have been impressed with the range of services being offered by different libraries that I have visited in the early stage of my national library tour. It is imperative that we keep the pressure on the government to act faster and smarter to save these vital pillars of our communities.” Dan Jarvis MP, shadow minister for libraries in  As National Libraries Day nears, our libraries remain under threat – Left Foot Forward.  

• Kent “ignores” National Libraries Day  – BookSeller.  SCL defends itself against blogposts/twitter and points out that there are events going on in many of its libraries.  In Kent, however, staff have been ordered not to put events on for the day. 
• Our evidence to the Culture, Media and Support Committee – Voices for the Library.    Summary of the major points to the Select Committee on Library Closures and a link to the full text.
• Save Our Libraries campaign: one year on – Guardian.   “If you are campaigning to save your library and especially if you told us about it last year, we’d like to hear from you. Tell us, one year, on how your campaign is going.”

 Brent: Community turns out in force to save Preston Library – Preston Library Campaign. “Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North spoke out against his own party.”

• Croydon – Council has scotched rumours that books are being cleared from the borough’s libraries in order to prepare for closures – Council Watch.   ““We used to try and sell books ourselves, but most of it didn’t sell and had to be disposed of. All old books are now collected and taken away free by Revival, who pay us for every copy. The new approach generates money and means none of the books has to go to landfill, the spokesman said.”
• Derbyshire – Novel look to revamped library – Derbyshire Times.  Chesterfield Library reopened after three week closure for installation of self-service, book displays, seating.  “For a special feature on the new-look Chesterfield Library, see this week’s Derbyshire Times.”
• Durham – Anger as hours cut at County Durham libraries – Chronicle Live.   “Users in Consett are especially angered by a plan to cut the hours of their town centre library, which loans out more than 200,000 books a year, from 50 a week to 38. They also say elderly folk living on the town’s outskirts could be affected by the closure of mobile libraries.”

• Edinburgh – Police and council staff take up roles within library hub – Edinburgh Evening News.  “The country’s newest public library opens in the Capital today, after two decades of campaigning by local residents. Drumbrae Library Hub will also have staff from other council services working at its front desk, so that people can pay their rent or report antisocial behaviour at the same time as borrowing a book. The £5.7 million development includes offices for local police officers, housing advisors and environmental services, along with a day-care centre for the elderly.”
• Gloucestershire – GCC’s new consultation survey: “baffling”, “manipulative” and “full of assumptions and loaded questions” – FoGL.  Campaign group argues that the new consultation repeats many of the mistakes and errors of the old one that was ruled illegal in court.  People of doctoral level are finding the survey confusing and loaded: “each of the pre-written answers to Question 7 will generate data which can be used to justify the current proposals”.  

“I suspect that our friends as Public Interest Lawyers will chuckle merrily to themselves when they see this blatant piece of manipulation and think about its role in the forthcoming case against the second attempt by Gloucestershire County Council to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. I wonder what Private Eye will make of this perfect set up for some caustic comedy sketches.”

• North Yorkshire – Volunteers to take over Dales library in unprecedented move – Yorkshire Post.  “Coun Chris Metcalfe, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for library services, said the Masham Volunteer Trust will officially take over the running of Masham’s library as part of its proposals to transfer the running of many of its 42 libraries to volunteers in a bid to counter £69m in Government cuts. The library is one of eight having funding pulled from it, with 14 more having their budgets slashed by 30 per cent”
• Portsmouth – Creative authors bring National Libraries Day to life – Hayling Today.   “Pauline Rowson, author of the popular Marine Mystery crime series featuring DI Horton which are set in the Portsmouth and Solent areas, promises to entertain visitors at Portsmouth Central Library on Saturday, February 4. She will start the event with a talk about her novels and crime writing, and there will be the opportunity to win signed copies of her crime novels with a murder mystery quiz hunt for clues around the library.” 
• Salford – How one council is trying to sustain its library services in hard times – Alan Gibbons.  “One example of this approach is the new library in Salford Sports Village. This library moved from the Albion High School and now that it is based in the Sports Village has seen a dramatic increase in usage. In addition the percentage of local people who are active library members is now 19.7% (Lower Kersal). This figure of 1 in 5 local people being active users demonstrates how a public library is of value to people in the inner city.”
• Suffolk – New manager for Suffolk’s libraries – Haverhill Echo.  “Alison Wheeler, who has worked in the libraries industry for close to 33 years, will become IPS’ general manager at the beginning of February 2012.”
• Town council step in to help Halesowen Library – EDP.   Town Council will fund 5% of library budget by increasing it’s council tax.  

“Halesworth Town Council believes that our library is so important a part of the town’s social fabric and educational infrastructure, that it should meet this cost through a small equitable charge on the local rate.”

• Telford & Wrekin – Libraries shake-up is under public scrutiny – Shropshire Star.  Month-long consultation on major cuts to opening hours, bookfund etc
• Swindon – Start a new chapter in life: join your library – This is Wiltshire.  “Swindon Council’s library service is urging people who are not already a member of their local library to pop down and register as part of National Libraries Day on Saturday.”