Tuesday 11 January 2011

Brent Library Closures Get National Coverage

Brent's library closures continue to get coverage in the national media. Today's Guardian has four letters following up the weekend coverage LINK

The following letter was particularly to the point:
Cuts should be administered intelligently as if by a surgeon, not willy-nilly on some economic chopping board. Libraries, more than ever, are needed by all ages, especially the young who must prepare for an overcast future. Closing libraries to save money is like cutting off the blood supply to the brain as a labour-saving device for the heart.
Leon Arden
London
 Meanwhile campaigns across the country are beginning to think about occupying the buildings if all else fails. A guide to library occupations is available HERE

Ironically Brent Library Service has a Facebook page entitled We Love Brent Libraries  It includes the following:

We Love Brent Libraries. 
We love meeting authors.
We love reading groups.
We love the information experts.
We love the free events.
We love kids stuff.
We love e-books.

We love learning.

Exactly! Councillors take note.

I couldn't help noticing that Brent's advertising hoarding on the Civic Centre site extolling the virtues of the '21st century library'  doesn't mention books for borrowing - or for pleasure!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the December edition of the Brent Magazine a full page is devoted to the library transformation project.

Nowhere on the page is the KEY POINT - that transformation means CLOSURE of 50% of the library buildings.

Anonymous said...

What is missing from the Brent Library Service Facebook page? A love of BOOKS. They mention eBooks ... but not the physical object which requires space, access, management, investment, and protection.