A digest of today’s news items, reproduced here, with kind permission from Shirley Burnham who collated it. For up to date libraries news follow @ShirleyBurnham on Twitter.
CILIP : 25th January
Chartered Institute warns of dangerous “headlong rush” to create more community managed libraries
http://www.cilip.org.uk/news-
CILIP – Wales : 24th January
Welsh Government Minister speaks powerfully in support of public library services
http://cilipcymruwales.
Public Libraries News : 24th January
Meanwhile, in England …
The Welsh Minister in charge of libraries has spoken strongly in favour of libraries and directly contrasted this with the less-than-forthright approval shown in England. This continues the trend where Wales and Scotland are notably different in their handling of libraries to that of Westminster. Indeed, one senior librarian in Scotland has told me that Scottish librarians “look with horror” at what is happening south of the border and think something approaching mass madness is happening.
http://www.
Sky News : 25th January
Writers Take Over Libraries Under Threat Of Closure On National Libraries Day
http://tyneandwear.sky.com/
THE BOOKSELLER : 25th January
Lewisham library volunteers on workfare scheme
http://www.thebookseller.com/
EADT 24 : 25th January
Suffolk | Bury St Edmunds: Older residents are affected by loss of mobile library service
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/
The Argus : 25th January
Long campaign to save Brighton and Hove mobile library is lost
http://www.theargus.co.uk/
Book Trust : 25th January
Libraries keep us human
It has also made me wonder if many people – on both sides of the argument – might be slightly missing the point as to why libraries are so essential.
http://www.booktrust.org.uk/
South London Press : 25th January
Lambeth | ‘Friends’ row: leisure supremo under attack
The Friends of Streatham Library (FoSL) group has written to council leader Cllr Lib Peck to emphasise the non-partisan nature of the groups. …. chairwoman Laura Swaffield said the row was a “storm in a teacup”. She said: “Many of the groups have been opposed to Lambeth’s silly plans for libraries, but I could not tell you what political parties they come from. We are bending over backwards to keep party politics out of the groups.”
http://www.southlondon-today.
Good eReader : 25th January
Bilbary’s Tim Coates’ Panel Notes Call for eBook Lending Reform
http://goodereader.com/blog/
Infoism : 24th January
The death of the library?
But we have already seen, as noted above, that such a situation has already taken hold in deprived areas. What makes anyone believe that, in the light of this report, authorities will be dissuaded from threatening communities in deprived areas with closure of their local library unless they run it themselves? I have seen nothing in my experience to suggest that they would be.
http://infoism.co.uk/blog/
Don’t Privatise Libraries : 25th January
The ‘Disneyfication’ of public libraries
http://dontprivatiselibraries.
Harrow Times : 25th January
Harrow residents are London’s third highest book borrowers
“Harrow Council wants to ensure that our libraries continue as thriving community resources, whilst also bringing them into the 21st century, and Harrow’s libraries are set to see some great improvements very soon.”
http://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/
