With physical books, which working in a bookshop is a world I understand a bit, the library in one shape or form or another has been part of the world of books for well over 2,000 years with the oldest libraries still functioning being well over 1,000 years old.
With public libraries the main problem is the cost of running them compared to the number lends, which here in Kent boils down to, every book borrowed from a library for free cost the taxpayers about £3.
In a world where you can buy the majority of printed books online for around £3 including postage there are some ethical questions that need to be resolved, along with this is the issue of the public library service allowing library members to borrow E-Books without visiting the libraries.
The old fashioned library with "SILENCE" at the centre of the rules has mostly gone, but what has replaced it seems fairly dysfunctional. I think there is a need for some sort of leisure focused around literature that is both free and focused, but just what form it should take I don't quite know.
In Ramsgate one of the main functions of the library is school homework and revision and lack of viable and dedicated space is an issue.
Another use is as an internet cafe, however with most people having a tablet or smartphone this is becoming less of an important aspect.
Ramsgate is a Carnegie Library and I suppose there may be some part of the various Carnegie institutions that could help with improving the situation.
Ramsgate Library housed a museum before the fire and there may be a place for the group setting up a museum for Ramsgate in the scheme of things.
My take is that £3 per lend and a weak definition of what the role of public libraries should be in the future isn't a good position for the libraries to be in.
I don't think this works very well either, perhaps part of the libraries should go back to the "SILENCE" rule.
Here in the bookshop it was mostly topping up Bygone Kent local history magazine, we sell back issues to walk in customers for 99p each.
Link to the picts of the mags we put out today
Link to a few Ramsgate photos from this evening
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.