Reasons to be cheerful

[Serial_Apologist]

In order to survive - importantly ticking the box of community engagement (which I don't decry) libraries local to me have gone into overdrive in that respect. They also charge £3 per week to a local music group (as long as its a reg. charity) £3/week for an A4 poster for an upcoming concert (or anything else) - which leaves me conflicted. (We don't put them up there any more, although that might change; incidentally for a National charity its £6.60). And the poster would be put in a very marginal position in one of the 5 to 8 noticeboards full of county council/library/public health posters.

In this benighted country, just because libraries aren't a statutory service, where the after effects of austerity and financial mismanagement (on a grand scale) are being faced, it comes to something when a service of providing books on loan in return for council and other taxes are facing abolition.

The outpouring of dismay after the damage to the Library in Merseyside shows this isn't just a view of the middle (and older) aged in their supposed or actual comfortable retirement. The politicians at National Level need a good metaphorical kicking for leaving local government on the rocks of the malicious funding policy of the previous government of 14 years.

Along with the shutting down of pubs and supermarket refurbished to prioritise self-checkouts, any closure of pharmacies - which btw were till recently being recommended alternatives to overloaded surgeries - is now to be added to the never-ending list of informal meeting places for the comunitarian use of the (secular) public. And people complain when others, particularly the young, bury their social lives in their iphones???

[smittims]

I persist in believing that it was the introduction of computers which spoilt libraries and wasted a lot of their budget. If they'd stayed books only (which after all is what 'library' means) they'd have cost less to run.

[Pulcinella]

I persist in believing that it was the introduction of computers which spoilt libraries and wasted a lot of their budget. If they'd stayed books only (which after all is what 'library' means) they'd have cost less to run.

But it must be argued that they provide useful internet access to those that don't have facilities at home.

[Serial_Apologist]

But it must be argued that they provide useful internet access to those that don't have facilities at home.

Provided they have a home computer, of course. What did people do back in the days before computers and iphones existed, and automation was used, not to allow time and space for family, community and the potential for enlightened self-education and creativity, but to put some companies ahead of others and create billionaires telling the rest of us how change is inevitable and we must adjust regardless of social and environmental consequences? These are the real, vital questions that urgently cry out for answers and lasting solutions.

[Pulcinella]

Provided they have a home computer, of course. What did people do back in the days before computers and iphones existed, and automation was used, not to allow time and space for family, community and the potential for enlightened self-education and creativity, but to put some companies ahead of others and create billionaires telling the rest of us how change is inevitable and we must adjust regardless of social and environmental consequences? These are the real, vital questions that urgently cry out for answers and lasting solutions.

Not sure I understand.....I was meaning more in the sense of CABs (Citizens Advice; no apostrophe, I see), because so many things (such as benefits applications) have to be submitted online and some people need help and/or access, which libraries can provide.

[french frank]

Provided they have a home computer, of course. What did people do back in the days before computers and iphones existed, and automation was used, not to allow time and space for family, community and the potential for enlightened self-education and creativity, but to put some companies ahead of others and create billionaires telling the rest of us how change is inevitable and we must adjust regardless of social and environmental consequences? These are the real, vital questions that urgently cry out for answers and lasting solutions.

Yes, the problem is that "everyone" is forced to use the latest technology - and who is it that falls through that particular net? The people who most need the services (can't help them bec.don't know about them).

[LMcD]

But it must be argued that they provide useful internet access to those that don't have facilities at home.

Among other things, they allow people wishing to trace their family history to do so - for free - via Ancestry, Find My Past and similar services.

[oddoneout]

I persist in believing that it was the introduction of computers which spoilt libraries and wasted a lot of their budget. If they'd stayed books only (which after all is what 'library' means) they'd have cost less to run.

Books only? How far back do you want to go? My first job when I left school was in the library service, and there was a record library - half a century ago. Quite a few things were added to the non books offering in libraries before computers appeared in them.
If computers 'spoilt' libraries, it was the result of poor implementation and management, not of their inclusion in the educational and community remit of the service. When the library in my home town moved into new purpose-built larger premises and introduced computers there were issues initially, largely to do with noise, not helped by the children's library being in the same space. That was rectified by putting the adult library upstairs and making it a quiet space. The computer provision is now much smaller as home access has increased and schools have made more provision for pupils.They are still well used though for all sorts of purposes, both leisure/personal interest and to enable people to access information, get help with using IT, improve skills(there is a small space tucked away for one to one tutoring etc) A downside of that smaller demand is that post-Covid the decision was made not to re-open the first floor for library use, so everything now has to be fitted(aka crammed) into the ground floor - the various groups that meet there, and the (now reduced - no reference section) adult library stock - but the children's allocation of space(about a fifth) has stayed the same, and still has no screening other than bookcases so no noise control. The second busiest library in the county had its floor space reduced by 50%...
However I keep reminding myself that the county council considers its libraries(and museums) important and continues to run them; we are very fortunate compared with many areas of the country in that respect.

[Roger Webb]

Books only? How far back do you want to go? My first job when I left school was in the library service, and there was a record library - half a century ago..

And what a great idea that was!

I supplied Bristol Central Library ( and several others) with its compact discs in the 80s and 90s. This was a period when the Corporation's coffers were overflowing to the point where, not only could they afford a 'Walking Officer' at £79,000 per annum - a tidy sum back then - but thrust large piles of cash at the poor music librarian and order her to spend it before a certain date. She dutifully conveyed it in a large wheelbarrow to my shop and begged me to exchange it for CDs....I mean, what could I do?

As a rate-payer I was appalled, as a mortgagee I welcomed the Corporation's contribution to its early settlement!

[oddoneout]

And what a great idea that was!

I supplied Bristol Central Library ( and several others) with its compact discs in the 80s and 90s. This was a period when the Corporation's coffers were overflowing to to point where, not only could they afford a 'Walking Officer' at £79,000 per annum - a tidy sum back then - but thrust large piles of cash at the poor music librarian and order her to spend it before a certain date. She dutifully conveyed it in a large wheelbarrow to my shop and begged me to exchange it for CDs....I mean, what could I do?

As a rate-payer I was appalled, as a mortgagee I welcomed the Corporation's contribution to its early settlement!

Well it certainly gave me some memorable moments. Checking the discs for scratches when they were returned and totting up the charges for new ones inflicted while on loan by comparing with those noted on the ticket( hah! scratch cards) could be difficult. I have never forgotten the chap who blustered at me that there was no way his equipment could have caused the scratches on the records he was returning because " my equipment is so sensitive you could bounce the stylus up and down and it wouldn't make a mark". Then there were the records left on the parcel shelf of cars on sunny days...

[Roger Webb]

Well it certainly gave me some memorable moments. Checking the discs for scratches when they were returned and totting up the charges for new ones inflicted while on loan by comparing with those noted on the ticket( hah! scratch cards) could be difficult. I have never forgotten the chap who blustered at me that there was no way his equipment could have caused the scratches on the records he was returning because " my equipment is so sensitive you could bounce the stylus up and down and it wouldn't make a mark". Then there were the records left on the parcel shelf of cars on sunny days...

I can confirm that the public were no more careful with CDs than they were with LPs, judging by the replacement orders that arrived from the library. In fact the careless disregard of customers for their own CDs is remarkable....the usual excuse is that the manufacturers said you could spread jam on them and they'd still play! The manufacturers never said this - although I remember 'Tomorrow's World' said they were probably less susceptible to blemishes than vinyl LPs.......enough encouragement for the punter to go to town and ruin it!!

[smittims]

Another interesting discussion. Thanks.

Most of us, I guess,who've had to deal with the public, have memories of those picturesque incidents that make life colourful. I remember a smart, intelligent , middle-class, middle-aged lady bringing a LP back: ' It won't play properly'. It was not so much warped as corrugated, as wavy as a shed roof, and some of the grooves had melted. It had clearly been left on a radiator or some other heat source for a long time. She denied it strenuously. 'Oh , I know what you think. I bought a new car and when I tried to wash it the paint came off. I took it back and they said 'no, that can't happen'.

I can't remember whether I sent her away or gave her a replacement out of sympathy.

[Roger Webb]

Another interesting discussion. Thanks.

Most of us, I guess,who've had to deal with the public, have memories of those picturesque incidents that make life colourful. I remember a smart, intelligent , middle-class, middle-aged lady bringing a LP back: ' It won't play properly'. It was not so much warped as corrugated, as wavy as a shed roof, and some of the grooves had melted. It had clearly been left on a radiator or some other heat source for a long time. She denied it strenuously. 'Oh , I know what you think. I bought a new car and when I tried to wash it the paint came off. I took it back and they said 'no, that can't happen'.

I can't remember whether I sent her away or gave her a replacement out of sympathy.

Before my time as a CD ( and LP) merchant I was a member of the Lp-buying public, and regularly took faulty vinyl back from where I had bought it....and became know as a fussy blighter!

I once took an Lp back to Boots (those were the days!) as it was a 'swinger', and told the assistant that the hole was not in the middle - a fault not too uncommon. She took it out of the paper inner sleeve, stared at in disbelief and retorted, 'Yes it is, there it is!'.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Before my time as a CD ( and LP) merchant I was a member of the Lp-buying public, and regularly took faulty vinyl back from where I had bought it....and became know as a fussy blighter!

I once took an Lp back to Boots (those were the days!) as it was a 'swinger', and told the assistant that the hole was not in the middle - a fault not too uncommon. She took it out of the paper inner sleeve, stared at in disbelief and retorted, 'Yes it is, there it is!'.

Used to get a lot of French record pressings like that. Only DG and EMI could ever really be relied on. The former always seemed to pressed to a very high standard - worth the premium prices . Decca and CBS less so and Supraphon , Vox etc not all good,

[Master Jacques]

Used to get a lot of French record pressings like that. Only DG and EMI could ever really be relied on. The former always seemed to pressed to a very high standard - worth the premium prices . Decca and CBS less so and Supraphon , Vox etc not all good,

The great virtue of Supraphon LPs (aside from the wonderful sleeve art) was the fact that they were cut at a high enough level to disguise many of the clicks and pops. I took very few of them back to long-suffering Tony at Farringdon Records (Cheapside), whose ever-courteous smile used to drop for just a second when he saw me coming into the shop. Happy days.