Funding Cuts and Usage Decline....Which Comes First?

princeofpounds

Well indeed - why do you need those book thingies when there are good honest men's pastimes like bear-baiting, drinking and !!!!-fighting to have fun with?

antrobus

princeofpounds wrote: »

Well indeed - why do you need those book thingies when there are good honest men's pastimes like bear-baiting, drinking and !!!!-fighting to have fun with?

Bear-baiting was the 'sport of kings'. Probably due to the shortage of bears on this island. Bull-baiting was the big popular sport in Britain. Outlawed in 1835, at the same time as other kinds of animal fighting.

Drinking and fighting in general continues to be a good honest working man's pastime.

Generali

There's still a pub near Blackfriars called The Coockpit which still has the gallery from where men watched and bet on the fights.

I've not been for the best part of a decade but it was one of those little sanctuary pubs, away from the braying City boys but still in The City.

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

I'd argue it's one of those things that the private sector finds difficult or impossible to provide.

Something that has yet to be mentioned in this thread was the role of the industrialist, Andrew Carnegie. He established a staggering number of libraries and really helped embed them in the national psyche.

If the Public Libraries Act of 1850 set the ball rolling and the Public Libraries and Museums Act of 1964 made provision compulsory, then Carnegie's role in the middle must be acknowledged.

He funded a staggering 660 public libraries in the UK, plus 1689 in America. There are also Carnegie Libraries in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Africa...

Carnegie built the buildings, providing the councils agreed to run them.

There's a great article on the Carnegie legacy here:
http://www.bigissue.com/features/2945/andrew-carnegie-billionaire-benefactor-great-britain

If anyone is wondering whether their local library is or was a Carnegie Library, there's a list here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Carnegie_libraries_in_Europe#United_Kingdom

kathrynha

With our local libraries the decline is a vicious circle.


Funding gets cut > less new books bought > opening hours reduce > less people use the library > funding gets cut......


For me, visiting my closest library is impossible. The opening hours are all within standard working hours. They even close before the local schools finish.

The library in the next village is now a community library run by volunteers, and is becoming a social hub for the village.
They open 2 evenings a week and Saturday mornings.
They have a suite of computers, with sessions where an expert is available to help.
They have a small coffee shop area.
There are a variety of weekly clubs including pre-school story time, knitting, yoga, homework help.
They have regular community events and school holiday activities.


It has in 3 years gone from a library with less than 10 visitors a day to a thriving library which is always busy.

ruggedtoast

The investment with libraries isn't as a repository to store books no one reads, its in the curation of resources, information and archiving, as well as acting as a community service.

Librarianship is a skilled post grad position and there is usually one in each library and one or two Assistant Librarians (the people you see walking around stacking are library assistants).

It pays very little indeed.

You might think that there is no point having a Library because if you Google quantum physics or tort law there are ten billion hits for quantum physics or tort law. But the Librarian has to know which books are actually considered useful, which are worth updating, which are out of date, which are industry standard, which are for laymen and so on.

Librarians actually know a surprisingly large amount about a lot of topics and if you actually ask them for information you will be quite surprised how well they can guide you to what you need to know, rather than just what Google thinks you want to know.

If you have kids they will visit the library a lot for groups or through their school.

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

There's still a pub near Blackfriars called The Coockpit which still has the gallery from where men watched and bet on the fights....

Birmingham still has its Bullring. Even if in name only.:)

Oddly enough, the provision of a public bullring was once regarded as one of the responsibilities of the local authority.

GunJack

I'm a techie, but I hate trying to read e-books. I also read quickly, so continual page-swiping on a tablet is way too nauseating. Immersing yourself in a good book is an unimitable thing, and kids read books far too little these days as it is. Any further cuts to libraries should be done so as to rationalise but to retain them for the generations following...

Mistermeaner

I initially thought ebooks were a great idea but have since found that by the time I've printed and stapled them they are actually more expensive than normal books.

Loanranger

vivatifosi wrote: »

Part of the problem is that it isn't always possible to get the digital rights to an author's works. Some publishers just don't allow it, so you have whole series of books that can't be borrowed electronically.

It's a fairly new area though, and will improve. Libraries have had physical books for hundreds if not thousands of years, so getting a good digital offer is going to take a while. Please stick with it, and try the online magazines if you haven't already.

Surely not thousands of years, Viva??