Comments on: Should one save all the libraries all the time? https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2015/02/should-one-save-all-the-libraries-all-the-time.html What's happening to your library? Tue, 03 Feb 2015 23:43:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Shirley Burnham https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2015/02/should-one-save-all-the-libraries-all-the-time.html#comment-6509 Mon, 02 Feb 2015 17:24:02 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=8633#comment-6509 The daytime news on TV reported a couple of days ago that little children in Ireland, barely 3 years old, ran up to a shop window in town and – with a finger – tried to swipe the glass, thinking it would react like an iPad. It was filmed.

This will be the legacy of our Leaders when libraries are no longer part of children’s lives. Some kids won’t know what a book is, but – hey! – they’ll all be able to swipe bits of glass. Okay, the story was amusing, but it’s also tragic.

It makes you think: what is government setting up by allowing our public libraries to be sold off or trashed? Why has it not thought this through when pushing its Austerity measures and rhetoric? Will a whole generation of re-wired babes be dumbly trying to swipe every bit of glass they see, expecting a game or a picture?

A ‘brave new world’, is it? Without libraries, I think not. Make a BIG FUSS, everyone. Don’t give up till you’re 6ft under.

]]> By: Martin Cove https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2015/02/should-one-save-all-the-libraries-all-the-time.html#comment-6508 Mon, 02 Feb 2015 10:34:43 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=8633#comment-6508 I agree that things can’t be frozen especially in areas like mine where large influxes of new residents are leading to new towns etc and new libraries. This is belated and only as part of ‘community hubs’ but they’re still going to be libraries with we are assured at least one paid staff member (for the moment !). Thus the network is there but in a shifted form. This is, though , hard on those places losing their library and users often don’t have easy access to cheap transport to get to the shiny new ones especially the elderly , young single parents and unemployed – some of the many we’re here for. Also there’s no requirement for councils to keep the number of libraries/ hubs the same as we have no public library standards any more (at least in Enlgand). Nor is there any effective strategic body to give direction nationally but that would offend against ‘localism’ wouldn’t it ? Such national direction would progress the issues Luke Johnson mentions but we seem to be going in the opposite direction and Sieghart seems to have fallen in to a media black hole !

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