Thursday 2 February will see the publication of The Library Book, ahead of the National Libraries Day set for this coming Saturday. The idea for the book comes from Rebecca Gray at Profile Books, both a way of celebrating individual writers’ affection, memories, commitment to libraries and to raise money for The Reading Agency.
The questions asked (and answered) are those that have informed debate on the issues of library closures since the battles began in earnest more than a year ago. The Bookseller’s Fight for Libraries campaign is the most comprehensive and the most accurate, clearly charting the month-by-month progress of high court battles, sit-ins, mass check-outs, campaigns in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, London, the Isle of Wight, Buckinghamshire, Surrey.
What comes through is that the dishonesty of central government’s intentions, when insisting that local government should dictate local policy. It has resulted, as we all feared it would, in the dismantling of our ‘national’ library service. This is what campaigners tried to guard against. The wording, the terms, of the 1964 Act have been used and abused for fourteen months and more. In the same way that campaigners in different parts of the country have discovered that judges would rule differently, so readers discovered that local authorities have interpreted the words of the Act differently.
Children’s author, Alan Gibbons, through his Campaign for the Book, has been tireless in cataloguing the realities of the situation, not least of all the consequences of professional libraries being squeezed out in favour of volunteers. In the past week alone, I have had notification from the ‘Friends of Flackwell Heath Library’ in Buckinghamshire and from SLAM, the Surrey Libraries Action Movement (savesurreylibraries.org). Any emails, letters any of us send in support, can make a big difference to local campaigns.
In the end, it is our chance on National Libraries Day, 4th February 2012, to make our voices heard. Join local protests, send letters to local Councillors, to Members of Parliament. The Department of Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee is closed to written testament, but will be hearing evidence on Tuesday 7th February. It has been a war of attrition, those who do not see the value of a comprehensive, national library service attempting, simply, to wear down campaigners, hope that boredom will set in and protestors will lose heart.
That hasn’t happened yet. The coming week is a chance, once again, to put the fight for libraries back in the limelight. As for The Library Book, everyone has contributed their piece without payment and all proceeds are going to The Reading Agency.
So, beg, borrow or – best of all, in this instance – buy a copy!
