I left my bicycle in the London Library’s bike-shed yesterday. The shed has a lock that can be opened only by library members, and so I didn’t bother to chain the bike to one of the stands. I usually do, but it was a Sunday, the library was closed and
OK, let’s get today’s rant over with, we’re all busy people. According to the Local Government Association and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, libraries are now to be ‘saved’ by putting them in doctor’s surgeries, churches, and other community centres (and let’s not forget their previous genius idea, putting
Well, that’s a Saturday spent usefully. No, I haven’t joined the Boy Scouts — although it’s a thought. Instead I spent the day at a seminar organized by the British Library in conjunction with Wikipedia. From the BL’s point of view, it was a way of promoting its special collections
What fun. The British Library (here) is calling all budding Victorianists to join them on 4 June for a massive edit-in. The idea from the library’s point of view is to help spread the word about the depth and breadth of the various Victorian collections quietly waiting for readers at
Yesterday in the Observer there was a wonderful article on libraries and their function in the 21st century (here), and the various purposes they serve. The most interesting part (well, it was all interesting — do read it), the most worrying part was, I thought, where one librarian told of
Brent council in north London has just rubber-stamped the closure of six of its libraries. We all know why this is outrageous (try: the £100m cuts imposed on the local government being equalled in Brent by spending £100m on a new town hall). That is not what astonishes me —
English