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.
LIS PUB LIBS : 1st March
Mick Fortune | RE some sensible and interesting debate
It seems to me that there is something of a disconnect between the widely expressed vision of a 21st century, tech-savvy, highly creative and innovative service and the fragmented, poorly resourced and skill-depleted organisations expected to deliver it
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
Don’t Privatise Libraries : 2nd March
Does self serve really offer the library user a choice?
http://dontprivatiselibraries.
Save Croydon Libraries Campaign : 2nd March
Labour’s Statement on #Croydon Libraries
http://soslibrary.blogspot.co.
Buckingham Today : 2nd March
Call for volunteers as library gets go-ahead
This week, Bucks County Council (BCC) cabinet member for community engagement, Martin Phillips, approved a proposal by the Friends Of Winslow Library which will see the library relaunched as Winslow Community Library.
http://www.buckinghamtoday.co.
Local Government Chronicle : 1st March
Exclusive: Brent reveals chief is off pay roll
Brent LBC is paying £200,000 a year for its interim chief executive through a private company instead of the pay roll, LGC can reveal.
http://www.lgcplus.com/
THE GUARDIAN : 1st March
Society Daily | Libraries
In the Huffington Post Dave Clements admits he is bored by protests about cuts and is none too keen on libraries either: These rebranded community ‘hubs’ are teeming with activity that is hardly conducive to book-related endeavours at all. Between the parents with their gaggles of noisy kids, support groups and ‘stalls’ of all things, not to mention the so-called students getting on my bloody nerves chatting on their mobiles – God I sound old – libraries just aren’t libraries any more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Huffington Post : 28th February
Shh! About Saving Libraries
Librarians aren’t librarians any more either. They are glorified signposters and they look all the more miserable for it. That there are more volunteers in libraries than there are paid staff makes a sort of sense when their function has become so degraded. …. I for one find it hard to muster much support for defending libraries or librarians. I say this not because I am mean or a philistine but because having listened to the pleading of campaigners I no longer see the point in defending them. They aren’t what they were.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.
SallyPrentice.org : 25th February
Arts Council discussing with councils what libraries will be like in 2022
Sally Prentice is a senior Labour and Co-operative councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth
http://www.sallyprentice.org.
NextLibraries.org : 19th February
USA | Building community assets
The value of a library lies in its ability to develop community assets, says library educator Ken Haycock. And the future of libraries depends on our ability to share that vision with community leaders.
http://www.nextlibraries.org/
