Totally agree Steve and well put
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-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Baker
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 11:45 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Please reads, so very very true!
Thanks for passing on this thought provoking article. My reactions while
reading it, like my reactions too many newspaper articles, blog posts and
twitter comments that I have read recently, are mixture of nods of
agreement, smiles and head shaking.
In this article what sparked most reaction were the comments about the
“temple of learning model”.
I worry slightly when people suggest we have to be one thing or another.
Yes libraries have an important learning and information role, but we also
have a very important leisure role. The leisure role should not be
undervalued or decried. If we put all our eggs in the learning and
information basket libraries will make a few people happy, become irrelevant
to others and alienate the escapist reader. To put it bluntly they will
become elitist and die.
For libraries to survive they need to reflect on and meet the needs of their
communities. Their provision must offer a balance between the “temples of
learning” and the “escapist’s paradise”. That balance should shift
according to the needs of the community, and surely that is part of the joy
of libraries that they are all different in content and feel?
Let’s not throw out Plato for Lee Child but equally let’s not throw out Lee
Child for Plato.
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