Lauren SmithVoices for the Library: www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk

Save Doncaster Libraries: www.savedoncasterlibraries.wordpress.com

Twitter: @walkyouhomeEmail: laurensmith2102@gmail.comBlog: www.laurensmith.wordpress.com

UK public libraries in crisis

13th February 2011:

● 430 buildings ● 61 mobiles

Out of 3,500

Just bricks & mortar?

Taking back the narrative

@mickfortune

@bethanar@ijclark

@ggnewed @walkyouhome

@tomroper @Jo_Bo_Anderson

@SmilyLibrarian

@philbradley

@simonXIX

New Recruits

Ian Anstice @essomenic

Fancy newfangled technology

Voices of the public

Voices of librarians

Public libraries are not bookshops, focussed on filling the shelves and seeing them emptied by eager readers. Our concern should not only be that readers borrow the books, but that their experience of borrowing the book has a positive influence on them and society. Equally, the user who merely frequents the library to look up a fact, read a newspaper, consult a local timetable, attend a class in some topic or other, their use of the library is as valid to them and the public library service as the rabid borrower who withdraws half a dozen books a week. I fear that we sometimes fail to see that.

- David McMenemy

Getting people writing

Creating a media buzz

Books and materials are secondary in a public library. The most important aspect is the human interaction. The library experience cannot be viewed as just an information transaction, but rather as an opportunity to touch and connect lives.

- Cheryl Napsha, Director, Bethel Park Public Library

The public library is a practical demonstration of democracy’s faith in universal education as a continuing and lifelong process, in the appreciation of the achievement of humanity in knowledge and culture. The public library is the principal means, whereby the record of man’s thoughts and ideas and the expression of his creative imagination are made freely available to all.

IFLA Section of Public Libraries, 1973, pp. 13-14.

There’s work to be done to make libraries hum – and that involves more local people feeling closely involved with them, but if they no longer function as serious, professional services, they’ll go nowhere. We need information professionals to help us all, especially those with few resources and outside of formal education, but libraries have mostly failed to provide guidance on social media and its potential for collaborative consumption and informal learning. Bureaucracy, firewalls and apathy block change.

- Chris Meade, Bookfutures

Political Stuff

Local and national government

Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964

● “duty of the Secretary of State to superintend, and promote the improvement of, the public library service”

● “duty of every library authority to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons desiring to make use thereof”

● “encouraging both adults and children to make full use of the library service”

Libraries are directly and immediately involved in the conflict which divides our world, and for two reasons.

First, because they are essential to the functioning of a democratic society. Second, because the contemporary conflict touches the integrity of scholarship, the freedom of the mind, and even the survival of culture, and libraries are the great tools of scholarship, the great repositories of culture, and the great symbols of the freedom of the mind.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

“We all know a truth about libraries, which is that those which will succeed are those that wake up to the world of new technology, the internet and everything else, and investment goes in." - David Cameron

Libraries are constantly under attack from people who fear knowledge, people who think guns are more important than books, and people who want to ensure that multi-millionaires pocket even more money. As an author, father, and a reader, I beg you: please support your local libraries in any way you can, and if you enjoy reading, take a moment to thank a librarian.

- Will Wheaton

Are we nearly there yet?

Absolutely must-read stuff:

Crystal, D. (2011). 'On caring about libraries'. DCBlog. http://bit.ly/davidcblog

Kirriemuir, J. (2010). 'Are UK public libraries expensive to run?' Use Libraries and Learn Stuff blog. http://bit.ly/jkulals McMenemy, D. (2008). 'Public libraries: the modern context'. The Public Library. London: Facet. http://bit.ly/davidmcm

McMenemy, D. (2007). “What is the true value of a public library?” Library Review, 56 (4). www.emeraldinsight.com/0024-2535.htm

Images, references and links: http://bit.ly/mmubookmarks