Since Margate library has been improved and has the new status of a Thanet gateway book lending has dropped by 40%, I can’t imagine a greater cultural disaster could happen to a town than to have its only bookshop closing and borrowing from the library nearly halved.Possibly the Nazi book burnings of WW2 caused this level of drop in reading, but I would doubt it, certainly having council desks in the library is an unmitigated disaster for the town.
TDC and KCC need to understand that the primary purpose of a library is to make books freely available to the population, and to do to this it is necessary to have an environment that one can concentrate enough to read in.
It is time for a review of the function of libraries, I can see a good case for publicly funding the free availability of books, however is there a case for publicly funding the loan of DVDs which is the equivalent to publicly funding cinemas, or internet cafés, what do you think?
no - this is not the case at all. more people have joined the library in the first few months of 2008 then joined in the same period in 2007 and all the book issue figures are up. go and see for yourself - the library is always busy.
ReplyDelete17.25 have you noticed how that Michael bloke is often wrong
ReplyDeleteWell, I visited Margate library for the first time since it became the Thanet Gateway and I thought it is terrible. Not a space I'd want to sit and read in or peruse the shelves. And nor would I want to share my inyimate details going over my council tax either. It seems to have woefully small shelves and amounts of books. It seems to be everything a library shouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteSo where do these library figures come from? It was closed and moved for much of last year?
I haven’t got the actual statistics for Margate library that apparently say that while 42% less people are visiting the library, they are borrowing more, I do however talk to my customers in the bookshop. Some of them work in libraries or for the council so I tend to have a fair idea of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI believe it would be possible to produce statistics showing an improvement by comparing periods last year when the library was in temporary accommodation.
Michael, I like the postcard, especialy the Timothy Whites lamp. Anymore of chemist shops.
ReplyDeleteThe library service wastes a huge amount on dvds that never get borrowed and then get sold off for a quid. There are plenty of other places folk can borrow dvds and cds but not many places where you can borrow books. The old Boots Library went decades ago.
ReplyDeleteyes most of the fiqures michael says ae quite very wrong.
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