This item in The Thanet Extra (link on sidebar) caught my attention and to begin with I thought with about 100 libraries and library fines being just over £1 per week this figure seemed reasonable. I reflected that the average item would be a worth about £10 at £1,000 per library that would be about 100 items or 2 missing or totally damaged items per week per library.Apparently the information had been gained under the freedom of information act, and Kent libraries are considering having a fines amnesty to get some of it back.
As I read the article however it just didn’t make sense at all, stock lost in 2006 was £97,000 and stock lost in 2007 was £106,000 however the 2007 figures included the stock lost in Ramsgate Library fire, one would have expected the fire to make more than £9,000 pounds difference to the figures.
Then the article went on to say that in 2007 Thanet had the most amount of stock written off at £25,000 this figure suggests that the whole of the value of the books, CDs, DVDs, Playstation games, etc in Ramsgate Library when it burnt down was less than £25,000 at £10 per item this would mean that Ramsgate library had less than 2,500 items to borrow, well there are about 1,000 shelves in my bookshop meaning that there would be less than 3 items per shelf or a value per shelf of £25 if you put all of the stuff from the library in it.
I suppose I have reached a stage where I expect local government to be somewhat economical with the truth and produce statements and accounts that don’t make sense, any one got any ideas how they could have come up with this one?
Michael, I stopped using the libray service when they cut the loan period to 3 weeks. I used to 'borrow' 12 books at a time, but with the fine regime and reduced loan period I found that I was'paying' in fines on a regular basis. something I found annoying, as a council tax I 'owned' the books already. I understand the term loss, it does cover the cost of replacing books etc that are beyound repair. Besides that to you and me 100grand is a lot, as a percentage of the arts and libraries budget, its a speck
ReplyDeleteI saw Cllrs Hart & Bruce the Rock Doc in a CAFE drinking together - I wonder what they were talking about?
ReplyDeleteIs BRUCE going to join Labour?
Ken me to, with young children which I have had for a very long time ones life doesn’t run to the sort of clockwork where one remembers to take them back on time.
ReplyDeleteAlso over the years as the libraries range of books diminished and the bookshops got better there was less to tempt me.
I would say the people who use the shop’s exchange scheme for their reading get off a lot lighter than I did with library fines.
12.45 I would certainly be worried if I thought councillors weren’t talking to each other because they belonged to different parties.
Michael
ReplyDeleteCan you trace a book called "Greatest Wartime Cockups" ?
Maybe fire insurance paid for the lost stock at Ramsgate ?
I was told that a few weeks ago Cllr Ezekiel was sitting at a pavement table in Margate old town with some-one who looked like Ken Wills; perfectly normal as they are old friends from trips to China.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the original article.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that 'stock' is not valued at the amount it would cost to replace it.
It would be as written down value in the audited accounts. A book may cost £10 to replace new but as old library stock might only be worth £1 or less!
I have not read the original article - but this might explain the discrepancy you describe.
Rick I can’t find any reference to the title, it’s not in the British Library, we do however have two books in stock on friendly fire incidents.
ReplyDelete21.57 Must be the café culture rumoured to be happening in Margate.
Mrs TP sorry I couldn’t find the article on their website, I’m no accountant however I would have thought their local book collection to be worth quite a bit and a lot of this appreciates in value, Busson’s book The Book of Ramsgate that was published in the 80s at about £10 now sells for about £60 and I am always happy to pay £100 for the Ramsgate Millennium book, a lot of the older local books are worth considerably more.
RICK. Nothing for a book with a title you have given on the net, bookfinder.com or The British Library Catalogue.
ReplyDeleteHowever there is:
1]GREAT MILITARY DISASTERS by CHARLES MESSENGER 1991 DORSET PRESS. ISBN 0880296461. Several available through bookfinder.com all priced at under a fiver.
2]THE WORLDS WORST MILITARY DISASTER by CHRIS MCNABB 2005, ISBN 1840138084. Loads available through bookfinder.com priced at about £20, with poor conditioned copies £7-12
Hope this helps,
Alan
RICK: 2ND BOOK TITLE SHOULD READ -
ReplyDelete'WORLDS WORST MILITARY DISASTERS' NOT DISASTER.
ALAN
I borrowed the book, which I seek, from Cwmbran library in the early 90s.
ReplyDeleteI think it was written by an Australian. (not sure).
It was the only book in which I have seen published that Bomber Harris issued a memo 5.1.44 concerning betrayals of bomber streams through illicit IFF radar transmissions.
If I still have the Werner Bartells (Kingsgate crash landing of Luftwaffe Margate College Old Boy) stuff and the Swiss Von Werra story documentary company email I will forward them to you Michael. Thanet's very own Rudolf Hess incident ?
The argument is that if Bartells was our man, then we almost certainly knew about IFF betrayals long before Professor R V Jones deduced it early in the war(to be told to mind his own business by a certain Leonard Cheshire) and 4 years before Enigma decodes officially established it leading to Bomber Harris memo describing Cheshire as an "idiot".
And I don't think the powers want the truth of this to peep through for at least another 100 years.
Thanks to everyone who did research on the book.
Rick if you know the book to have been printed I think it is most likely you have the title mostly wrong try putting slight variations into the various main library search engines at http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/copac.htm
ReplyDelete