Take it as read
Heartening news of sorts from the Milton Keynes area (that must be a first): in a rather unique form of direct action, residents of Stony Stratford have reacted to the threat of closure hanging over their local library by withdrawing every single book.
I've no doubt that the library's demise would be damaging for the local community, granting as it does access to the internet and other forms of information as well as the printed word. However, as one or two commenters have pointed out, presumably the closure is only being considered because the withdrawal rates are generally low - so perhaps what was needed was more consistent support to prove its ongoing viability and cost-effectiveness.
(Thanks to Skif for the link.)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
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2 comments:
Aye, tis true that regular usage is needed to keep things viable.
Despite being in the trade, albeit a different sector, I have very rarely taken books out of my local libraries since leaving, well, school.
However, in the last few months, I've been acutely aware of the need to back the service so I've been trying (despite having about 30 books on my shelves of my own that I've not read - must start asking for different things for birthdays I think) to make a decent amount of use of the 'Idea Stores' we have here in Tower Hamlets.
Indeed, my current tome on the go, 'Electric Eden', is on loan from the Whitechapel branch.
So hopefully I won't need to take out 8,000 books at once further down the line.
For a supposed bibliophile, my own non-use of libraries is shameful. I just seem to get so little time to read these days, and when I do I'm still ploughing my way through the many unread tomes sitting on my bookshelves. Should really start getting books out of Abingdon Library simply on principle.
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