But everthing is on the internet....

I always enjoy the daft comments made by people who think that libraries are outdated and should all be closed anyway. The cry is always 'but everthing is on the internet anyway and you can get loads of books for free via download', usually closely followed by 'books are outdated, everyone will be using downloads soon'. I beg to differ. Firstly, no everything is NOT on the internet. There are vast amounts of information and any number of books available in digital format via the internet, but this is only a tiny, tiny fraction of all the books and all the records available out there. I also wonder how people think information gets onto the internet in the first place. Do they imagine that its all somehow magically absorbed into the vast ether that is the web? Someone has to sit there and scan every page in every item and load it up to the web. This takes time, and people. Yes, there are book scanners that will turn the pages for you and scan a book automatically, but they're generally beyond the financial reach of most libraries and other organisations. The British Library has one, but then it adds around 3 million titles, or 11km of shelving, to its stock each year. Even all the troglodytes in the basement all scanning all of the time are not going to be able to make much of a dent in that (no, I'm not being rude, that really is the pet name for the staff who work in the stacks!). And no, digital versions of each thing published are not automatically made at the same time. Many specialist books or those on small print runs will only ever be in hard copy.
There are many advantages to the digital versions of course, and I would be stupid to suggest that libraries should ingore the progress being made and to ignore the e versions of books altogether. For many the digital version is far more flexible and user friendly and of course rather lighter to carry than the lastest hardback bestseller.  But we're not just talking about fiction or textbooks, which is what the arguments tend to be about, there are dozens of types of book that the e-book wouldn't work too well for. Cookbooks for example. I don't know about you, but the idea of having my kindle or iphone next to the cooker while I attempt the latest Nigella or Jamie Oliver receipe is just asking for trouble! Plus, with this type of book half the pleasure of them is leafing thorough the book and browsing. Equally, sheet music doesn't translate that well to a screen, neither do children's picture books or for that matter any 'coffee table' book. Books also have a tactile quality that most of us still value, particularly when we already spend so much time reading off a screen. There is something refreshing about reading text in a hard copy format when you spend all day in front of a computer, whether its in book form or as a newspaper or magazine. Books of course are also good as gifts, somehow being given the download of a favourite novel or non-fiction book isn't quite the same as receiving a hard copy of it with a personal note in. It suggests that the giver has thought carefully about the gift, rather than the feeling that it might have been hastily done at the last minute as digital gifts or cards can. A first or early edition of a book would be even more prized. For these reasons I don't think everyone will be using downloads soon. Plus, at least at the moment, they don't suit everyone. I can't imagine that the older library users I encounter are likely to swap their paperbacks for a Kindle any time soon, despite useful features like being able to change to font size. There are many who just don't want to read off another screen, as outlined already and a book will never have a flat battery, get corrupted or become an outdated model. Neither survive being dropped in the bath very well though.
A final note, this is a quote from a head of libraries in Surrey
"The book is a very outdated way of transmitting information" - some people will no doubt be thinking that this head of libraries sounds like he or she is looking toward the future in a practical way, noting how old fashioned and soon to be obsolete the book it. The comment was made in 1981, and 30 years later libraries are still alive and well and so is the book. Incidentally, Surrey libraries experimented at this time with introducing arcade machines and getting rid of the reference and childrens sections of its libraries. The arcade machines lasted 6 months, and I believe the reference and childrens sections are still in place.

There will be a short intermission

I stepped away from this blog for a while, mostly as my all consuming rage at the way in which library services were being broken down, disregarded and generally tarnished by the uninformed vitrol being spouted in the media threated to completely overcome me! But now, with new developments afoot, it is time to pick it up again.

The first stage of the 'restructuring' is now complete, and it seems that little the staff said about the proposals was taken into account. The almost illterate email we received from the acting head of service once the 'consultation' process was closed said it all. The reaction given was that yes, knowlege and expertise would be lost and that was regrettable "but if you always do what you always did you get what you always got". I think the fact that the acting head of service didn't even read the email thoroughly enough to pick up the clanger of a mistake at the beginning in addressing us all by 'God Morning' says everything about the level of care and courtesy extended to staff!
The senior staff have now gone through the process of applying for jobs and redundancy and those who survived are now in post. Performing Arts has been left without a 'Library supervisor', as has Ilfracombe and we don't know what will happen to fill those posts. There are many leaving the service, either through retirement or redunancy and with them go many years of experience and vast swathes of local knowledge and subject expertise. As expected, the gaps left in frontline staffing have not been filled, and nor will they be. This is where the decimation of the service begins.