Monday, April 09, 2012
Library wars
Surrey County Council is, along with the rest of the public world, struggling to make ends meet and had lighted upon what it thought was a nifty wheeze to both keep its libraries open and to save money. It had clearly worked out that Surrey is a volunteer rich county; plenty of ladies about who are tired of lunching and would like to put something back while getting to meet a few different people and having a natter. So why not turn over the small neighbourhood libraries to volunteers? Not very busy and keeping them ticking over should not burn out too many grey cells.
Enter the protesters. Save our libraries! Down with volunteers! And not content with protesting they went to the length of taking the matter to the High Court, probably consuming more energy in the process than would have kept said local libraries open for years. After due and solemn deliberation a judge ruled that the Surrey proposal was illegal in that in making it they had not taken proper account of the need to train any volunteers in the mysteries of equal opportunities and service to the unequal would thereby be put at risk. Much cheering and whooping from the protesters. We've got one over the county! We've got one over the government!
Fair amount of coverage in both national and local papers. Fun and games all round. Pictures of grey hair and no hair protesters with banners. But I have yet to spot any discussion of the issues. Is it better to cut funds to libraries rather than funds to care workers? Is it better to have small libraries run on an amateur basis by volunteers than not having them at all? Is it sensible to try and maintain equal opportunities in these circumstances?
While I do not have much sympathy with this protest or the present crowing of the protesters, I do, despite my best intentions, agree with the judge to the point of seeing an equal opportunities point. The service might be provided by volunteers but it is being provided as a public service and as such ought to meet certain standards, which includes access for all.
There is also the longer term issue of whether we want libraries at all. My impression is that lots of libraries have more or less shut down with their role taken over by the Internet. For example, all the rather splendid libraries that self respecting government departments used to run. And I hear that that run by the Royal Astronomical Society in Piccadilly does little business these days. So should most of the local authority ones be rebranded as Internet cafés, to serve those people who for one reason or another do not have the Internet at home? What is more, it could easily be that the cost to the local authority of borrowing a book is much the same as the cost of buying it from Amazon - in which case people should be buying rather than borrowing. And Surrey being an eco. sort of place they should clearly be buying to kindle.
But in the shorter term we have to remember that there are still pots of people out there who do not do the Internet and are unlikely so to do any time soon.
Enter the protesters. Save our libraries! Down with volunteers! And not content with protesting they went to the length of taking the matter to the High Court, probably consuming more energy in the process than would have kept said local libraries open for years. After due and solemn deliberation a judge ruled that the Surrey proposal was illegal in that in making it they had not taken proper account of the need to train any volunteers in the mysteries of equal opportunities and service to the unequal would thereby be put at risk. Much cheering and whooping from the protesters. We've got one over the county! We've got one over the government!
Fair amount of coverage in both national and local papers. Fun and games all round. Pictures of grey hair and no hair protesters with banners. But I have yet to spot any discussion of the issues. Is it better to cut funds to libraries rather than funds to care workers? Is it better to have small libraries run on an amateur basis by volunteers than not having them at all? Is it sensible to try and maintain equal opportunities in these circumstances?
While I do not have much sympathy with this protest or the present crowing of the protesters, I do, despite my best intentions, agree with the judge to the point of seeing an equal opportunities point. The service might be provided by volunteers but it is being provided as a public service and as such ought to meet certain standards, which includes access for all.
There is also the longer term issue of whether we want libraries at all. My impression is that lots of libraries have more or less shut down with their role taken over by the Internet. For example, all the rather splendid libraries that self respecting government departments used to run. And I hear that that run by the Royal Astronomical Society in Piccadilly does little business these days. So should most of the local authority ones be rebranded as Internet cafés, to serve those people who for one reason or another do not have the Internet at home? What is more, it could easily be that the cost to the local authority of borrowing a book is much the same as the cost of buying it from Amazon - in which case people should be buying rather than borrowing. And Surrey being an eco. sort of place they should clearly be buying to kindle.
But in the shorter term we have to remember that there are still pots of people out there who do not do the Internet and are unlikely so to do any time soon.
# posted by Jim @ 2:39 AM 
