When I grew up in Our Welsh village we waited for our weekly box of books,
and went through them like savages. Once a week to the local Institute. We
never had a library in our village, and still to this day they are only in
the larger towns, but not huge distances, but we took the bus.
The Welsh loved its books in those days, and reading was a favorite pastime
along with radio, especially in the Winter. Books were not door sale in many
places and there was nothing like a supermarket.
My nearest public library (But of course I was lucky has we had a good
library at the Grammer School), is still in the same town, now a concerted
Chapel, but there are cars at every house now, and people travel longer
distances for shopping etc, and do train journeys, and go to huge
supermarkets. They use DVDs watch a multitude of TV porgrammes, use their PC
for all sorts of reasons, so times have changed form my box of books!
f
Frances Hendrix
Martin House Farm, Hilltop Lane, Whittle le Woods, Chorley, Lancs PR6 7QR,
UK
tel: 01257 274 833. fax: 01257 266 488
email: [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Chad" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 2:47 PM
Subject: Welcome back the commercial circulating library?
> Commercial 'circulating libraries' were a major feature of 18th century
> culture and lasted a long time. The London Library might be considered as
> continuing the tradition. The 'library' in my High Street in the 1960s was
> a
> commercial circulating library until the public library put it out of
> business.
>
>
>
> The Mirror today reports (
> <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/09/we-re-boys-from-the-boo
> k-stuff-115875-22547960/>
> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/09/we-re-boys-from-the-book
> -stuff-115875-22547960/ ) on what I think might be considered a 21st
> century
> take on a very old idea. Taking inspiration from the Love Film service a
> couple of college students have set up a text book rental service (
> <http://www.acadreamia.co.uk/> http://www.acadreamia.co.uk/ ) to fill a
> gap
> in conventional library provision.... ('he knew it wasn't worth going to
> the
> university library'). I found the following comments in the article
> revealing....
>
> ' ...everyone knows that if you want to do well in your degree it makes a
> massive difference to have the right books for as long as you need them. I
> wanted to do the best I could but couldn't see how I was going to do that
> without the books.'
>
> "It just seemed such an obvious idea we couldn't believe someone else in
> the
> UK hadn't done it."
>
> Whilst Acadreamia is clearly tackling a very specific need of students I
> think it suggests some broader implications. They aim to broaden to
> service
> out to schools. Maybe entrepreneurs will find a way to fill gaps in public
> library provision? If we take an inclusive view of what we think of a
> 'libraries' we see that this is a time of boom not bust. It's an
> increasingly competitive world.....
>
> Ken
>
> Tel +44 (0)7788 727 845. Email: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> [log in to unmask] <http://www.kenchadconsulting.com/>
> www.kenchadconsulting.com
>
> Skype: kenchadconsulting Twitter: @KenChad
>
> Check out the Higher Education Library Technology' website (wiki)
> <http://lglibtech.wikispaces.com/> http://helibtech.com/
>
>
>
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