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How to kill a library, By Kitty Pope

How to kill a library, By Kitty Pope | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

"[...]there are more than a few ways to kill a library.

For example:

√ Stop believing in the libraries mission. Do we really believe in the freedom to read, learn and discover?

√ Spend less time with the board. The ideal public library board would meet 4 times per year and agrees with everything the CEO recommended.

√ Stop talking to your customers. What do they know any way? And on the same topic, stop consulting staff. It is a huge time waster.

√ Don’t worry about the future and how you will get there. Sustainability is not an issue with which libraries need to be concerned. After all, we’ve have survived for hundreds of years.

√ Stop telling the library story. Everyone has heard our story.

√ Accept that the library building is old and you don’t need to keep renovating, painting, and updating it. It is what it is.

√ Accept that just like instant coffee killed the coffee bean, the e-book will kill the printed book.

√ Stop promoting the product; everyone knows about literacy and lifelong learning.

√ Stop empowering staff, and stop training them. They should come to us fully trained.

√ Stop all this talk about innovation. It just makes for more work.

√ And, for heaven’s sake, stop changing the rules and our traditions. It’s annoying!"

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Libraries Lobby Part 2 of 2 – Lydia Syson

Libraries Lobby Part 2 of 2 – Lydia Syson | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

@Saraathotkey:

"It was good to see lots of authors at the libraries lobby. I spotted @candygourlay and @markthomasjones in the crowd, and also one of our own Hot Key Books authors @LydiaSyson, the author of the forthcoming A WORLD BETWEEN US, a gripping love story set in the Spanish Civil War, inspired by her family history."

 

Lydia agreed to guest post for us about the event:

"Libraries are about stories, and dreaming, and travelling without going anywhere, and they’re also about literacy. And without literacy, there can be no political freedom. At the Speak Up for Libraries Rally today the writer Alan Gibbons made the point that libraries are a front line service. As it happens, another passionate speaker’s words had just got me thinking about a different front line: the front line in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9, when an elected Republican government rightly saw literacy as fundamental to their fight against the Fascist uprising."

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Libraries Lobby part 1 of 2, by @Saraathotkey

Libraries Lobby part 1 of 2, by @Saraathotkey | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

@Saraathotkey:

"And so has our coverage of the Speak Up for Libraries rally. This is the first of two blog posts… the next one is from Hot Key author Lydia Syson. 

There were an number of impassioned pleas to the government to take action on libraries closing. Here are my top three quotes from the event:

1. Mar Dixon, library campaigner “It should NOT be that because you have more money in your locality that you get a better library service.”

2. Ian Clark from Voices for the Library “There isn’t a single person alive who couldn’t walk into a library and find something they like.” (To which I add: because the librarian will be there to help them find it.)

3. Ian Anstice from Public Libraries News “Libraries are vital front line services. THEY JUST ARE.” He also said that it isn’t just about open or closed libraries. It is about the “not quite open” libraries. (I think that’s a huge point in terms of how the public views libraries, and funding should support libraries being open more often.)"

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