Love our Libraries – updated

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about the funding cuts of the British library.

Author Zadie Smith writes in the Daily Mirror about her experience of her local library.

She said: “My own family put a very high value on education. Like many people without money, we relied on our public services. Not as a frippery, not as a pointless addition, not as an excuse for personal stagnation, but as a necessary gateway to better ­opportunities.”

Like Zaide, my family puts a high price on eduction.  I’m lucky. My family didn’t see the library as geeky or anything to be ashamed to be seen in. The best piece of advice my mum gave me (well, one of the many) is to get a decent eduction, and keep working. Don’t depend on a man to bring home the bacon.

With education, you give yourself opportunities, regardless of your background. However, with education, comes resources, such as books and the Internet. Even in 2011, not everyone has access to a computer, let alone the Interweb.

By cutting the local library, I believe you’re limiting opportunity.

Books, books and more books

Happy World Book Day. Because I live in the UK, I can celebrate it twice. Everywhere else celebrates it on the 23 April. So there! It’s like my new year. Being part Chinese, if my western new year doesn’t go according to plan, I get another stab at in around February/March time. And I get money. Good times.

@WorldBookDayUK asked everyone to tweet in their teenage reads. Reading through, tweeps were name checking Lord of the Rings, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights. Mine felt trashy and lowbrow. I’ve always been embarrassed about what I used to read, but I am no longer ashamed.  So I put it out there – Point Horror and the Sweet Valley High series. I worked very hard for my books. I got pocket-money if I had done my chores, which I would save it up before going down to WH Smiths and purchase my one Sweet Valley book. I remember being outraged when the price of books went up. Once upon a time, they used to be four quid.

Other times, I would trundle down to my library and pick out my Point Horror books as well as Brian Jacque’s Redwall series and anything else I could get my hands on. Anything with talking animals I loved. Pre teen, my favourite books was The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and The Tales of Time Rabbit.

On the subject of books, people are starting to challenge library closures though the High Court. The pro-library group, Campaign for the Book, has launched a judicial review case arguing that the cultural secretary, Jeremy Hunt, (otherwise known as Jeremy C*** to James Naughtie and Andrew Marr) had failed in his legal duty to properly oversee the management of local authorities and their library services. He is being challenged under the  1964 Public Libraries Act. The Guardian article is worth a read, especially the comment by karlos2179, who makes an excellent point. He’s a jobseeker and the only way he can get information is to use the internet at his local library and adhere to his agreement.

Karlos2179 also proves that it’s not just middle-class Radio 4 listeners who use the library. That general sweeping statement is completed and utter bovine balls.

On a light-hearted note, I got excited when I got a reply from author Paul Smith after I had recommended his book Twichhiker to another tweep on Twitter.

Love our libraries

Since the current coalition government came into power, they have been preparing the country for savage cuts. I’ll happily admit that I’m no economist, but the speed and depth of the cuts is frightening.

Already they’ve climbed down on the over the selling of English woodlands due to furious public backlash.

But here’s one that we must stand up and say no to – the closure of libraries. Earlier this week, the Guardian reported on one library in east London which was saved thanks to people power.

I love reading books. I can’t afford to buy them (have you seen the price of art books?), so I borrow them from by local library. Far from being dusty, boring places, my libraries are welcoming places. My local one has been brought up-to-date with a refurbishment, and includes the latest technology where I can borrow and return books at a computer terminal. There are mum and toddler groups, the Internet, and the latest books in stock.  The librarians are not stern old witches who tell you to ‘shush’ when you breathe, but very happy to help. I can even borrow books from Bexhill and return it in Eastbourne.

The library has a special place in my heart. When I was very young, my mother and I would walk down to the library pick out my books for the week. It’s where I learnt to read, got whisked to other planets, time and even to space. I even read about talking animals! It’s where I learnt about body language, about the bus names in Brighton and my next travel destination. I’ve sat in the library doing research for school, college and university.

To deny people the pleasure of reading, to deny children from learning to read and write should not be tolerated. Closing our libraries is not an option.

So the next time you want to read a book, why not save yourself a few pennies? Go and pop down to your local library and show your support.