i was beginning to think that was a myth
Thursday, 10 April 2014 11:17![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
So way back in the mists of the December posting meme, thisbluespirit gave me libraries to post about! And it's taken me ages to post about them, because I love them A LOT and wanted to create a post that would do justice to that love. Which I'm not sure I have, but here we go, nevertheless.
I love them first as a library user, which I've been all my life. I remember using the Up Hatherly Library in Cheltenham as a child: being too young to really know how long three weeks was, so Library Day was a delightful surprise. Rummaging through the Tintin and Asterix books for one I hadn't read. Begging my mum to let me borrow just ONE extra book on her card ("one of my books is an audio book and that doesn't really count, so I'm ENTITLED to another book"). Haunting the SFF section as a teenager in the hope of finding Discworld books I hadn't read. Discovering the teenage section and with it Northern Lights. Earnestly hunting for books on my recommended reading for GCSE/A-Level age groups lists. BOOKS EVERYWHERE. When I was at uni I used the library mostly for comics, despite not really being into comics then: it was Buffy and Angel tie-in stuff, plus the odd volume of Sandman, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I fell away from the library a bit when I moved to Bristol (though I still joined because obviously), but I've been using it very heavily for the last three years or so, at first because comics, but now because it's just so easy. I know my library card number and PIN off by heart, so if someone recommends a book or comic, I can hop straight over the catalogue and request or wishlist it. :D (Current stats: 17 items on loan, three available and four pending reservations, 53 things on my wishlist (...that's more than I thought there were), £2 owing.)
But I also love libraries as a concept: free access to information and entertainment for anyone who wants it. BEST. Also the public library is more or less the only public space left where you can go and not be expected to buy something, and I think that's a really valuable thing to preserve. It gets things away from the idea that everything has a price, and that if you can't afford to pay that price it's probably your own fault and you don't deserve to have it anyway. Not everything is about buying and selling, and worth isn't purely about whether something turns a profit.
I wrote my dissertation on computer access in public libraries; the attitude of the government in particular is increasingly that "it's all on the web", but there are still a great deal of people who have never used the internet, or don't have reliable access to it, or don't know how to use. And they're excluded from accessing information, and from a lot of government services, so it's vital to have somewhere they can go to get both access and help.
I think the rate of library closures is appalling, as is the fact that the government seems to think libraries can be run by volunteers, there are just so many things wrong with that I don't know where to start. The thing that worries me most with library closures and the handing of libraries over to volunteers is that once the service is gone, I don't know that we'll be able to get it back. I mean, projects for big shiny new central libraries will probably be able to get support, but reopening tiny libraries in deprived areas, or beefing up the mobile library service? Not glamorous enough.
...so that's all depressing. But let's end on a positive note, because I really love libraries! They're this institution whose whole ethos is based on "books for everyone!" and helping people, regardless of their ability to pay, and I think that's pretty amazing.
thisbluespirit gave me libraries to post about! And it's taken me ages to post about them, because I love them A LOT and wanted to create a post that would do justice to that love. Which I'm not sure I have, but here we go, nevertheless.I love them first as a library user, which I've been all my life. I remember using the Up Hatherly Library in Cheltenham as a child: being too young to really know how long three weeks was, so Library Day was a delightful surprise. Rummaging through the Tintin and Asterix books for one I hadn't read. Begging my mum to let me borrow just ONE extra book on her card ("one of my books is an audio book and that doesn't really count, so I'm ENTITLED to another book"). Haunting the SFF section as a teenager in the hope of finding Discworld books I hadn't read. Discovering the teenage section and with it Northern Lights. Earnestly hunting for books on my recommended reading for GCSE/A-Level age groups lists. BOOKS EVERYWHERE. When I was at uni I used the library mostly for comics, despite not really being into comics then: it was Buffy and Angel tie-in stuff, plus the odd volume of Sandman, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I fell away from the library a bit when I moved to Bristol (though I still joined because obviously), but I've been using it very heavily for the last three years or so, at first because comics, but now because it's just so easy. I know my library card number and PIN off by heart, so if someone recommends a book or comic, I can hop straight over the catalogue and request or wishlist it. :D (Current stats: 17 items on loan, three available and four pending reservations, 53 things on my wishlist (...that's more than I thought there were), £2 owing.)
But I also love libraries as a concept: free access to information and entertainment for anyone who wants it. BEST. Also the public library is more or less the only public space left where you can go and not be expected to buy something, and I think that's a really valuable thing to preserve. It gets things away from the idea that everything has a price, and that if you can't afford to pay that price it's probably your own fault and you don't deserve to have it anyway. Not everything is about buying and selling, and worth isn't purely about whether something turns a profit.
I wrote my dissertation on computer access in public libraries; the attitude of the government in particular is increasingly that "it's all on the web", but there are still a great deal of people who have never used the internet, or don't have reliable access to it, or don't know how to use. And they're excluded from accessing information, and from a lot of government services, so it's vital to have somewhere they can go to get both access and help.
I think the rate of library closures is appalling, as is the fact that the government seems to think libraries can be run by volunteers, there are just so many things wrong with that I don't know where to start. The thing that worries me most with library closures and the handing of libraries over to volunteers is that once the service is gone, I don't know that we'll be able to get it back. I mean, projects for big shiny new central libraries will probably be able to get support, but reopening tiny libraries in deprived areas, or beefing up the mobile library service? Not glamorous enough.
...so that's all depressing. But let's end on a positive note, because I really love libraries! They're this institution whose whole ethos is based on "books for everyone!" and helping people, regardless of their ability to pay, and I think that's pretty amazing.
no subject
Date: 11 Apr 2014 12:22 (UTC)Ahaha, that is an excellent skill to have! Last time I tried to find a university library I hadn't been to before, I spent ages walking round the outside of it going "it must be this building, I can see the books, but I can't find the door"...
I know exactly what you mean, it's such a great feeling. Libraries have such a wonderful atmosphere.
Me too re affordability and space! (I don't have a Kindle so it's still mostly print format for me...) I could probably afford enough books if I stuck to charity shops, but then I'd have to rely on other people not wanting to keep the books I wanted to read.
Likewise! :D
no subject
Date: 11 Apr 2014 15:38 (UTC)Yes they do.
I confess I resisted getting a Kindle for some time until I suddenly realised that I really had no more space for printed books. I'll happily read either electronic or paper format, though - I'm not especially picky.
no subject
Date: 14 Apr 2014 14:50 (UTC)I'm not either! I'm not opposed to Kindles or anything, it's just not quite got to the point where my desire/need for one has outweighed the price/hassle of choosing one, especially since I've discovered the Kindle Cloud Reader.
no subject
Date: 14 Apr 2014 14:54 (UTC)Of course, if you haven't got a tablet/iPad, then the Fire is a handy cross-over device.
no subject
Date: 16 Apr 2014 11:31 (UTC)no subject
Date: 16 Apr 2014 13:50 (UTC)I've no idea about reading on the Kindle Fire - no one's commented on that issue to me, but then I've not discussed it hugely. Hmm.