To the Library

And while we are on the subject of Libraries (again... Ed)
Forbes is thought by a multitude of librarians and other interested parties, (as reported by the Grauniad
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/23/twaddle-librarians-respond-to-suggestion-amazon-should-replace-libraries?)
to talk a lot of Twaddle!
We may not be technically proficient in the subject of Twaddle but we feel our basic grounding in the discipline of FLAKENEWS qualifies us to offer our own brief disquisition. We shall refrain, however, from bellyaching about the evils of austerity, the callousness of cuts, the hosting  of hostilities, the visiting of the dead and the burying of the sick and all the other Works of Corporeal Murphy. Rather, we shall ask you to consider that libraries are one of the few services provided by a civilised society where we agree to share the use of stuff which we do not own except in a collective sense. While this may not work with donkeys, see Idris Shah and the exploits of the Sainted Mullah Nasrudin, it most certainly does for reading and listening material held in libraries real and virtual and has done in a good way for many thousands of years (on stone tablets no doubt...Ed). This alone would convince me but, of course as the good librarians point out, libraries do more, much more. The fact that some Bald Bozo wants to take over the world and sell us the same donkey twice should not influence us one bit or byte even! He can away and polish his heed!

And now a shelfie from our sponsors.

(Do you not think all these murdery, thrillery things might give people the wrong idea about a transcendentally named Blog the wrong idea... Ed?)

Yes!

HSL High Speed Library

Books, people, time and it's Bliss!
I don't know if any books were harmed in the process of making this short video from the Grauniad.
As Lenin once famously said when he worked at Salford Public Library "You can't have book, Tovarish, unless I stamp on it!"
(I didn't know Vlad was on the council payroll at Salford. Was he there long...Ed?)

As long as it takes to make an omelette.

A Modest Republican Proposal

As you may well know I am a fan of reading and libraries. I used the LRB archive to winkle out the Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. It was a straightforward exercise and well worth the old sub. (Are we getting paid for this ...Ed?) I then started to read. I stopped. Such explosions of laughter, merriment, paroxysms of amusement and general helplessness are injurious to one whose health is, to put it mildly, delicate. Besides I have matters pressing and cannot spare the time at the moment. (Then why in god's name am I having to edit this DRIVEL... Ed?)

However it occurred to me that we could combine national library/book/reading day, whatever you want to call it, with a call for the establishment of the Republic of Britonia. How about organising public readings of the work?

(Two for the price of one... Ed?)

Bogof!

Postcards from Purdah 2 Holiday Reading

A few books for my shelves for a few weeks. They will have to be returned, of course.

Should keep me out of trouble.

Gis a Book?

Books & Libraries again...
I was discussing the merits of libraries at breakfast and realised that one of the benefits of the library system, little promoted, is the idea of sharing. Yes, libraries provide 'books for the poor', reference books, tomes  provided for  wide groups of users.  They can act as a focus for community and artistic endeavours. There are many examples of other 'uses'.  We seldom promote them as exemplars of the shared resource; learning by doing.
I do not need my own universe perhaps would you like to share this one!

Later an article in the Observ-a-Tory
It's not what a library stocks, it's what it shares | Books | The Observer

The bookless library is not a contradiction in terms, but a continuation of the library's core purpose, providing access to knowledge and information, and a public statement of the value of that access.

I'm forced to agree but a bookless library, a bit like a pub with no beer!

You can't leave them alone for a minute!

A series of posts, I believe they are called tweets (how sweet), from a council meeting in Suffolk.
James Hargrave as reported in Suffolk Wordblog. A more considered view here.

Honestly, I go away for a few days and return to chaos, anarchy and goings on that would not be out of place in a brewery! I must say Cllr Patricia O'Brien looks like a fine filly for a Chairman(!) of Suffolk CC. I admit to feelings I haven't experienced since I lost my heart to the principal boy in the pantomime at Salford Hippodrome many, many years ago!

Trudging

In these times of high drama( the Parish Council have emailed us about the state of our hedge; accusations of hacking can not be far behind) it is nice to have a good steady plod to read about.
Luminous Coast by Jules Pretty has provided that.

I enjoyed it, not wildly but enthusiastically enough to encourage me to switch some of my coastal allegiance from the west to the east. It has also made me consider exploration over the summer which may be no bad thing!

There is a nice running (Ed... shouldn't that be walking?) gag about the lack of snow, skis and the like being mentioned by onlookers as the author, using walking poles, makes his way.

Another one from our recently saved Library Services.

Oh Yes!

The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

Never has so much been done by so few with so little.
It's official! Read all abart it!

Suffolk Libraries amongst the worst financed

I may have mentioned before that back in the day I worked with a colleague who claimed not to understand things. He understood why Baroness Dagenham wanted to kill off local government. What he could not understand was why she wanted to torture it to death?

The Information

SCL librarians have, yet again, delivered a book for me to my local library, only 2 miles away. (Note to SCC -If you close it my carbon footprint will increase as I will have to go the extra six miles to the next one. There is no suitable public transport. You will argue, of course, that I could be served by a mobile library bus with a big satellite dish on the top for direct links to Langley. Up to a point councillor Copper. It will visit our humble homesteads once every Preston Guild and, given our ages, physical and mental states, is likely to be pursued throughout the county by packs of infirm, forgetful old folk. A bit like the old rag and bone carts being pursued by dogs.) I digress.

The Information by James Gleick is a book I would recommend. I think he does a good job as it says on the tin/book moving from the history, the theory and pointing out the flood of information. Though, given the political dimension and scale of the subject it has been subject to criticism; sins of omission, possibly.

The jacket describes him as the author of Chaos! (Wouldn’t some of us love to be the author of chaos.) I enjoyed that one too!

Perhaps you could order it from your local library?

Library Card or Credit Card?

Not a rant in my usual style about how evil capitalists are out to destroy public libraries, eat babies and be cruel to children and other small animals; they are but that is a story told well enough elsewhere.

Instead a real spirit lifter. Karen claims in a post on the Voices For the Library website.

My library card is probably as valuable as a credit card.

If you don't believe her have a look. Now I bet you didn't know librarians did that sort of thing or provided those sorts of services.

'Right on the bubble' (as Primo Levi said: P48, The Wrench, borrowed from Suffolk County Libraries, god bless 'em)

Voices For the Library looks like a very well organised and presented campaign.
If I was Gauleiter Pickles I would be afraid, very afraid. Once the librarians are agin you,

yer doomt, doomt I telt yer.

He will become a minor misspelt footnote in the political history of the early part of this century.

Bumblebee Lectures

We sat, yesterday evening, entranced and moved by the elegant and eloquent defence of the rights of children given by Michael Morpurgo in the 35th Dimbleby Lecture. It was more though. It made the case passionately for books and libraries and the space for children to grow and learn and develop. The iPlayer link is here and I will update that if there is a permanent record after 7 days.

I didn't notice any members of the cabinet in the audience. I'm sure if they were and were tackled about the issues raised they would only have shaken their wise heads and said:-

Yes I know, terrible isn't it? I blame the last government!

Come on Dave. We want a society that is big enough to cherish and nurture all its children as a priority!

Nice One Philip

There is an article by Philip Pullman in Open Democracy Our Kingdom.
It concerns the proposed attack by the Coalition Forces on libraries.
As regular readers will know I too have a soft spot for libraries.
I'm glad that someone with a sharper mind and greater powers of argument is here to defend them and make the case that those who need them the most are least able to prevent closure.
The book burners and the library destroyers are a bad lot and who knows what damage they will do to us?

I know that we live in a world where there are greater ills and where unbelievable horrors greet people on a daily basis. I have no answer to this but I do know that libraries in whatever form open access to a shared humanity. Hopefully we are less likely to kill, maim, rape or exploit those we recognise as sharing that humanity.

To paraphrase the great Rabbi Burns, a teacher of some note, who you may celebrate this evening:

Some hae books and canna read,
And some wad read that want it;
But we hae books, and we can read,
Sae let the books be thankit

I may be going gaga but...

I had occasion to visit the British Library this week.
Little did I know that deep in the bowels this sort of thing was going on.
Still, I have a great weakness for librarians and their work as regular readers know.
I know life is short and there are many important things to do but take 4:23 out of a wet bank holiday to enjoy this and think of the good guys and gals down at your local, library, and don't forget the databases.
Thanks to Bong Bong for the link and understanding about librarians!

By this shall all men know....

A very sad post, a sign of the times, shades of things to come. What the hell will they do with our libraries when they get round to cuts. I'm sorry I'll re-phrase that. When they review, reallocate and prioritise existing resources in new, exciting and transformational ways.

I'm old enough and wise enough to realise that there are priorities. For the want of money and humanity the right to live is being denied. However, a taste of the post and the arguement that bread alone is never enough...

Think of the millions of lifelong love-affairs with literacy sparked in the collections of those libraries.

Read the post and weep. I'm not sure I should thank John Naughton for the link, depressing.

Never Mind the Quantity

Even at today's paperback prices, say 10 quid a throw, Mrs Brown has, according to the BBC report, had access to a library worth a quarter of a million sovs in the course of her reading life.
This bounty has, of course, been shared with her community. I would suspect the cost spread between the worthy council tax payers of Dumfries and Galloway is pennies.

Library staff said they were amazed by the achievement, particularly since Mrs Brown has never had an overdue fine.
The Dumfries and Galloway pensioner first became a member at Castle Douglas library and has particularly fond memories of the staff there.
....
Staff at the library described Mrs Brown as a "remarkable lady" and said they looked forward to her weekly visits.

It's not the quantity it is the quality of life that has been available to Mrs Brown as the result of a little cooperation.

I don't suppose the Library Police of this part of Southern Scotland have broken into her home to repossess the copy of 1984 which she was reading. Nice one Amazon; caught on the hop by John Naughton at Memex1.1 amongst others!

Interesting times for readers of books, libraries, writers, publishers, makers of gizmoes etc!

Libraries.

Some people think libraries are the biz.
I have been known to comment on them myself. We could be wrong! We will certainly not expect the changes to libraries that the iDog will bring.

If I haven't mentioned it before the iDog is a mobile/broadband phone that is under development by Buddhist Pizza Industries. It doubles as a text and A/V processing unit which comfortably uses electronic paper to display books, periodicals, and newspapers (remember them?) at any ambient light level. It can of course project, via a wireless link, onto an iWall (do I have to explain everything?) I thought the incorporation of the audio switch to enable the text to be read by the iDog in a range of voices from Juliet Stevenson to John Humphries (desending order) was a nice touch.

I can just see one of my nieces explaining to her grandchildren, wide mouthed in disbelief, about libraries and books.

Your uncle was a jolly old soul and in his later years he used to borrow a lot of books from the library. Yes, Kirsten, you remember seeing on VID all those books behind the glass wall in the British Library, well there was a library in the village next to where your uncle lived. He would look up the library catalogue on his computer, you don't need to know what one of those is dear, and order the book that he wanted to read. The library would send him an email, it's like a long text dear, to say he could collect the book, read it and return it for another reader in three weeks. He could have it for longer than three weeks if no one else wanted to borrow it. Yes, Jan, I think he was a veeery slow reader......

Who knows what will happen to books, journalism, publishing, copyright, etc....
What will that do to libraries? What will that do to us?

Pre-Christmas Shopping

Scooting about in Big Market Town, which is really quite small, I had to go into Waterwell's Bookshop. I am much more a creature of libraries as our many regular readers will know! However, needs must and the devil drives.

Having made my purchase, a present for a colleague, and secreted it about my person I was hovering by the door waiting for the tide of pre-christmas shoppers to subside so I could limp from the building. A woman of uncertain age and social background flounced into the shop and demanded at the top of her voice,

'Ave you got any funny books about, er, er, senior moments!

I slipped out of the door and jotted down the statement verbatim. My memory is not what it was.

From one extreme to another

Under the unlikely title of Hannibal Lecter saved my life (the Grauniad Review on Saturday 31 March)

Philip Oltermann discovers what the homeless customers of a London mobile library are reading.

Now you know how I feel about libraries. These Friends are volunteers and do not require six figure salaries to provide a decent, relaxed, and very useful service for a group of individuals who are, at best, ignored!

At the other end of the spectrum the debate continues about ebooks.
John Naughton spots an essay on the book reader industry.

The folks on the south bank won't be getting ebook readers any time soon but what a great idea. Solar powered of course!

Where the bad boys hang.

Several visits to the car doctors saw me hanging around in town. Reading the paper, having a coffee, lunch, shopping, doing what visitors to a market town do. Some people might regard it as killing time. I've found that it is speed which kills and I prefer life in the slow lane, sorry about that Harry!

You know by now, if you have been paying attention, of my fondness for librarians. I could even agree to the idea of the pay scales starting at six figures. OK being congenitally prudent, in a fiscal sense, that would require politicians, generals and captains of industry volunteering their services and a few other adjustments, but what the hell, librarians and libraries are worth it.

A colleague of mine was forced to use the local library to work on her thesis. Space, family and a large amount of paper caused a retreat to the reference section. She found the experience depressing and saddening. I, on the other hand, reveled in the humanity of it all. If you really want to hang with the bad boys and girls, the library is the place.

At one level it looks calm and orderly and even soporific. There are real people quietly muttering to themselves as they keep warm or soothe some inner turmoil. Gentle wives shepherd wild haired old men as they move from fiction, to maps and newspapers searching desperately for their lost memories. I sit in a line of computers checking email watching the electronic intercourse of the terminally dispossessed. People draw facts, like dust into a vacuum cleaner, from towers of reference books, processing them, methodically, one by one. Frantic fingers scuttle across the pink pages of the FT absorbing share prices. Perhaps they have evolved the ability to do this through their finger tips. Laptop users, obviously training for the 2012 speed typing Olympics, hammer away with the gleam of gold and glory in their mind's eye.

It's warm, it's comfortable, it's civilised and the librarians provide a haven of peace and access to information and communality, a respite from this world of violence and terror.

I suppose seven figures would be extravagant!

In Praise of Librarians

It is a great joy to use the library.
A friend suggested 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver. I ordered it from the library over the interweb and eventually a message came through the e-waves to tell me it was ready. I read it and on the strength of that experience ordered two books Lionel Shriver had recommended;
'Harbor' by Lorraine Adams and
'Tortilla Curtain' by T C Boyle.
These were delivered in the same fashion and a wet Whit weekend was spent very pleasantly with my nose in books. A part of the pleasure taken in these books is that I don't have to acquire them with serious cash money, look after them, except when they are in my charge, store them, fret about them, lend them to others and forget who I have given them to. I just have to get them back to the kind folk who lend them with the additional treat at the back of my mind that they will be enjoyed, if that is the right word, by others long after I have gone to the great recycling bin in the sky!

All this and heaven too as my mother said on many occasions.

I have a modest proposal to make. Why don't we take the money we currently spend on Weapons of Mass Destruction and spend it on other useful things such as libraries and of course librarians? I would add a note of special pleading for the Stakanovites in Suffolk County Libraries they deserve an extra bob or two.
When my local library was housed in a 4m x 3m cupboard in historic Lavenham, tourists would wander in and say, without fail:- 'Books! Is this some kind of library?' despite the big sign on the door saying - 'Some kind of Library' but then we have all been there.
I never once heard the reply 'Yeah. Really subversive isn't it.' But you knew they were thinking it.