Librarians and library users raise their Voices For Libraries
A group of dedicated librarians and information professionals have set up Voices for the Library, a campaigning website to share positive stories from public libraries and librarians, provide factual information about library usage in the UK and draw together the fragmented responses to the many attacks on UK public library services. It is high time for library professionals to be the voices for libraries. This campaign is an opportunity for people to discuss why libraries and librarians are so important, and why it is vital that they are run well and serve their communities effectively.
Libraries have recently had a high profile in the media, as a result of the threat of drastic cuts to library services across the UK. It is surprising that the majority of people speaking in the media about the future of libraries are not library users or library professionals and do not have the necessary knowledge and understanding of what libraries are for and the value they have. This site provides spokespeople for the media with a range of professional expertise.
We are looking for contributions from the public who use libraries, the libraries themselves, librarians, and other library staff. We want them to give us their stories about what libraries and the excellent staff working in libraries have done for them. We are also looking for contributions of statistics and data that accurately demonstrate the impact and use of public library services.
Only through these stories and with this information can the real voices of libraries be heard. These are the voices of the people who use and love libraries, and the voices of the profession who serve UK citizens by providing public library services: local gateways to knowledge, providing a basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision-making and cultural development of individuals and social groups.
Voices for the Library are not willing to allow cuts to libraries to slip by without public outcry. This is an opportunity for people who know how important libraries are to make their voices heard.
Information about Voices for the Library:
The campaign was set up in August 2010 with the following aims:
1. Share positive stories from public libraries and librarians.
2. Provide factual information about library usage in the UK.
3. Provide spokespeople for the media with a range of professional expertise.
Site: http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/. An ‘About’ page provides information about the team of professionals behind the campaign and site.
A BBC poll has found that there is majority support for cutting the deficit. The figures are as follows:
60% in favour
33% against
With none of the major political parties putting a clear anti-cuts message, this is a significant minority opposing the cuts agenda. When it comes to specific areas the picture changes markedly.
82% are against cuts in Education and Health.
The ConDem coalition face a rocky ride when people see where the axe is going to fall.
Resignations mark growing Lib Dem revolt over Coalition - UK …
You’ve never had it so bad. That’s the verdict of the ‘hard times index’ created by Oxford Economics. The index considers factors such as tax, average earnings, benefit payments and inflation. The conclusion? Things are worse for the average consumer than at any time in the last thirty years. That would be since the last openly Thatcherite government….under Mrs Thatcher.
Not that the people who triggered the financial crash are any worse off. Late last night I was browsing the Internet because the TV was so poor. I came across a pre-coalition interview with Saint Vince Cable. There he identified the single biggest problem facing UK Plc not as the deficit, but the behaviour of the banks. But what do we hear this morning from sources inside the government of which Cable is a member? George Gideon Osborne, the future 18th baronet of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon, is, according to the Sunday Times, considering scrapping plans to force the banks to reveal the pay deals of its star traders.
Forget Ozzy’s ‘tough’ rhetoric, it is the ordinary working man and woman who will pay for the cost of this crisis in falling income and public spending cuts while the architects of the mess in the Square Mile rake in the bonuses. The recent IFS survey demonstrated that the poor, the elderly and the disabled were gong to bear the brunt of austerity while the better off would be relatively cushioned. Today’s financial pages provided yet more evidence that we are most definitely not all in it together.
Oh, and if you think I am being a bit personal about old Ozzy, consider what’s happening in his own family. Ozzy’s brother Adam Osborne has bought a £1million townhouse even though he has been barred by the General Medical Council from working as a doctor for six months. That’s all down to one of those minor errors of which we are all capable. He prescribed drugs to two family members, a friend and a cocaine-addicted prostitute with whom he was having an affair. Easily done. As easy in fact as Papa Sir Peter Osborne opening his cheque book and funding Adam’s delightful pied a terre.
Nice!
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