Your email contribution to Open Book came over loud and clear John, amid a number of other email ripostes to Will Self and quite a good, constructive debate in the studio. I particularly liked the contributions by writer Dreda Say Mitchell.   

Folk who missed it, it’s on the iplayer and starts 16 minutes into the show.

Last Sunday I mailed round the rushed, frustrated email (below) that I sent to R4’s Open Book after hearing the interview with Will Self.

I had a call from Open Book to say they’d had a lot of responses, from both librarians and others.

They will be broadcasting mine and others in this Sunday’s programme.

John   

More uninformed opinion in the interest of debate on BBC’s Open Book. I haven’t time to rehearse what might have irritated me most but I wrote something like this,

I'm a librarian and I'm seething and frustrated as I listen to Will Self (normally a hero) talking about libraries and the challenges. I would be more than willing to talk to you. I don't have a jobsworth mentality and there's plenty to be said about libraries and the huge worth they bring, or could bring to individuals, families and communities. They are about reading but not just literary novels and the scope they offer for information and learning is huge but not covered by a narrow - but yes, wonderful - literary purpose. (Even so I often wonder at how rarely they are referred to on Open Book and there's *never* a librarian!) There are many libraries that have modern services and facilities, both on site and online, offer reading programmes and informal learning and information - not just that 'on the web' but authoritative information that has to be paid for (like the old reference book) and which few could afford. Contrary to popular myth, all libraries provide web access. It should be free (as in free information) and the library should be a hive of creative activity commensurate with its location and size. There are some like this; there should be more.

And why is there *never* a librarian on Open Book. Did research not reveal CILIP, Voices for the Library or even the Guardian ….. trouble with such programmes is they behave as though they are the first and start from scratch; there is no cumulative ‘learning’ so every programme is as if nothing has been on the media before.

John

John Dolan OBE, BA, Dip Lib, MCLIP

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