The most surprising thing about this morning's debate (especially given Richard Charkin's position) was surely that neither participant mentioned the progressive reduction over many years in the proportion of the public library budget spent on books. Fewer books, fewer users (sorry, 'customers').  Is this what they call a no-brainer?

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Eric Davies <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, 24 August, 2010 10:02:34
Subject: Re: The Independent -- Terence Blacker: Hands off our public libraries

Terence Blacker: Hands off our public libraries
This morning's Today programme included this item - http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8939000/8939086.stm - summarised as: 'The government says the library services need to be reshaped due to the fall in the number of library goers. Richard Charkin, of Bloomsbury Publishing, and author Marina Lewycka debate why people do not use libraries as much as they used to'
 
Eric
 
---
 
Eric Davies
 
European Information Services / Coordinator, European Information Association (part-time only)
PO Box 28
Mold
CH7 6FE
 
Tel: +44 (0) 1352 700051
www.eia.org.uk
http://twitter.com/euroinfo

From: [log in to unmask]" ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Holder, Ali
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 9:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]" ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Independent -- Terence Blacker: Hands off our public libraries

Has everyone also seen the discussion arising from this article on Mumsnet? It’s been all over Twitter:
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1025834-to-think-that-we-NEED-libraries-This-is-horrific

Ali

 

From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 23 August 2010 13:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Independent -- Terence Blacker: Hands off our public libraries

 

[log in to unmask] has sent you this article from The Independent.

Message from [log in to unmask]:

Have a look at this article from Friday's Independent. I'm glad someone in the media is championing libraries.



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