By VIEWdigital editor Brian Pelan
I have a strong affinity for the public library, as it is the place where I fell in love with books.
I am reminded of this as we celebrate Book Week NI which runs from Monday, October 21, to Sunday, October 27, Jointly hosted by BBC NI and Libraries NI, this week brings together communities, schools, and media to celebrate the pleasure and importance of reading.
The first library that I went to was in west Belfast in the 1960s, overseen by the formidable, no-nonsense head librarian, Ms Perry.
I discovered the world of CS Lewis’s Narnia and Jack London’s White Fang and Call of the Wild.
Growing up in a working class estate, these books and many others, including the poetry of Ogden Nash, the superb Bronte sisters, and Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, were a literary gateway to another world. Sadly, this particular library no longer exists, except in my memories. It was closed in 2010, and subsequently demolished, following a series of cuts to public libraries in Belfast.
The closure of Andersonstown library has been replicated throughout the UK with vast numbers of public libraries no longer existing.
The role of the traditional “librarian behind the counter” is under threat in a drive by some UK councils to cut staff hours using self-service checkouts. Officials in some local authorities are proposing that libraries can be operated at times without any professional librarians, relying on self-service technology, smartcards for entry and CCTV.
This has been criticised as a “mad idea”, limiting access to librarians’ advice and expertise for the young, vulnerable and many elderly people.
More than 180 UK council-run facilities have either been closed or handed over to volunteer groups over the past eight years in Britain and more than 2,000 jobs have been lost. Nearly 950 libraries have reduced their opening hours in that time too.
One person in every hundred the UK struggles to read and write. Around 36 million adults in the USA can’t maintain employment because of their inability to read or write.
Public libraries are free to use and are an essential service. I fully support all efforts to defend the public library.
I owe it to the child I was in the 1960s when the books in my public library stirred my imagination and let it soar.
This post was originally published on here
