The internet almost certainly amounts to the biggest, most accessible library in the world. Want to find out about something? Clickety click, Robert is your Dad's brother.
When I was growing up in Edinburgh, I went to school a hop skip and a jump from George IV Bridge Library. A magnificent building, full of information and fascination. For a piece of trivia, J.K. Rowling wrote her early Harry Potters in there to keep warm. I used to do my homework in there and later in life if I wanted to research something it was the obvious starting place.
I wonder if anyone still does that? I do hope so.
Do you?
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Not been to a library for 15 years, certainly with advances in technology and info online, theres almost no need for them aside from housing old people during the day.
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I have offered to volunteer at my local library, thereby keeping it open.
Sure you can find anything you want on the net but its very specific to what you search for.
Rarely does the net provide a surprise choice.
Shelves of books do just that.
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>> I have offered to volunteer at my local library, thereby keeping it open.
Well done.
It's sad that when there is comparatively much greater wealth than in the 60s, so many of the things that make life interesting and more enjoyable have much more trouble surviving. Our village shop has closed, and the next nearest a mile away is now run by volunteers. And well used, but uneconomic as a living.
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>> Rarely does the net provide a surprise choice.
It's worse than that. Books still in print are very seldom available to browse, and even obscure academic papers can be hard to find. Although some journals have comprehensive, easily navigated archives, others are stingy and demand payment for old stuff.
But the exact wording, if necessary in the official English translation even when this is poor or wrong, has to be cited in some sorts of text.
I have these problems all the time in what passes for my 'work'. Libraries are an essential component in the Heath Robinson apparatus needed to do it.
Ra ra Zero! (Did they accept your offer though?)
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>> Ra ra Zero! (Did they accept your offer though?)
Dunno yet, needs more than me to step up to keep it open.
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>> >> Ra ra Zero! (Did they accept your offer though?)
>> Dunno yet, needs more than me to step up to keep it open.
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You'd hope the staff would be kept on to keep it open - our local library is well used. And it's more than books it used for. Ignoring the obvious (free) Internet access, there are various groups that meet there. And the library does things like parking permits, arrange bulky refuse collections, hand out hearing aid batteries, etc. I hope the service continues.
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I mainly use my local (ish) library for CDs and DVDs, they also sell greetings cards, book tokens, toys, all sorts of stuff. They certainly seem to have diversified over the last few years.
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>>Shelves of books do just that.<<
Also found in bookshops.
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>> >>Shelves of books do just that.<<
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>> Also found in bookshops.
Rapidly disappearing bookshops...
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>>Rapidly disappearing bookshops...<<
Get that from Bookworm Weekly did you?
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go and find out how many bookshops have closed in the last year.
I dont have to do all your thinking for you.
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Well you must know surely given your doomsday proclamation?
Truth is, if you knew what you were saying was true, you would have spouted the figures, funny since you do so badger people to back up their own sweeping statements.
Its about 7 shops a month nationally over the last 5 years, hardly a crisis.
Last edited by: FoR on Fri 28 Oct 11 at 21:20
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>> Its about 7 shops a month nationally over the last 5 years, hardly a crisis.
It depends where you start from.
"the Booksellers Association revealed a quarter of British independent bookshops have closed between 2006 and 2011, from 1,483 shops to just 1,099.
And according to Experian, 580 towns now have no bookshop."
goo.gl/pRMfX
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 28 Oct 11 at 21:42
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I rarely go to a library now, though I still read a fair bit.
That's in contrast with early married life when, when having no TV or washing machine, every Tuesday evening we would venture out to the library, change the books, then on to the launderette to do the washing while starting the new books. It was a looked-forward-to night of the week.
The library was the same one I had used all my life until then. I'm pleasantly surprised to see it is still open, being a substantial old building with a good bit of garden in front that the council, based miles away in Halifax where they don't care about the minor towns, could probably make a good bit of money by flogging off.
www.calderdale.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/branches/rastrick.html
As a youth I'd often go in to use the reading room, full of up to date magazines and the day's papers then, including National Geographic, New Scientist, and even a car mag or two. I doubt it's quite as well appointed now, I must check when I'm next north of the Don.
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My local library recently changed from being friendly and accessible, to the opposite, i think so that local college kids, who don't come from here, don't have to walk a few hundred yards down the road.
It makes it almost impossible for me to get to.
I guess at least this one isn't closing down - although, i expect, in a year or so they will do just that, having spent many thousands
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ironicly i walked into my library on monday to use the internet facilities and blow me down its now an art gallery,
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I remember as a kid I had to whisper to my parents in the main lending library, whilst in the reference section talking was forbidden altogether. My local library now is more like a cafe without food, with loud (even shouted) conversations taking place and mobile phone music being sodcasted by several yoofs simultaneously. At least they're using the place, I suppose.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 28 Oct 11 at 22:54
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Our little north Notts. town has just had a brand-new library built. Very state of the art, with a cafe, free computer access, both fixed & wi-fi and even more impressive, a fully automated system of borrowing & returning books - no human contact necessary!
There are also rooms for various volunteer/social type activities.
Cost a few million, I bet.
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>> Cost a few million, I bet.
Good to see your council tax being spent on something worthwhile then.
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I love visiting libraries. The internet certainly is great for supplementing libraries, but it is no substitute for them. Looking at a backlit screen lacks the appeal of holding an old book in your hands. And not everything can be found on the internet.
I am a member of my local library in western Sydney and, as I work in the city, I'm also a member (although not a resident, so I have to pay an annual fee) of the City of Sydney Library (it has about six branches in the inner city and two in the CBD). I also have a Special Collections card for the State Library of New South Wales (the state reference library) which allows me access to the rare books collection in the Mitchell Library. I have a reader's card for the State Library of Victoria, which I use when I'm in Melbourne.
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>> >> Cost a few million, I bet.
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>> Good to see your council tax being spent on something worthwhile then.
Yes, it's a damn sight more worthwhile than some of the barmy things on which councils spend our taxes.
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Oddly enough, although I sometimes rely on libraries and support their continued existence, I have a lifelong reluctance to enter them (or bookshops, to a lesser extent). Many hours spent in the old British Museum reading room, the wonderful round one where Karl Marx did his research for Capital, and the new brick Lubyanka in Euston road, have not made much difference.
Something to do with a lifelong aversion to what is called 'work' I can't help feeling.
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Libraries - Stuu
