Good Library Guide UK Blog:
Tue, 22 Jul 2008
  • ~The British Library

    • From Roger Pearse

      I live outside London, and I really don't see a lot of value from the British Library. Why shouldn't it suffer cutbacks? It's an institution that makes nothing much available online, and charges like a wounded bull for any of its services. Isn't it just a bloated bureaucracy? It's telling, surely, that its reaction to threatened cuts is not to cut staff but services to the public -- the reaction of every self-serving bureaucracy.

      Can someone explain to me why we, the general public, need to fund this organisation? With figures that show the benefit to us all?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008
  • ~Andrew Motion on libraries

    • Thank you to 'Paige Turner' in Wales who spotted this article by Andrew Motion in the Independent on Sunday

      Who is it that has tried to define the argument about libraries into 'books or computers?' -- how stupid can you be? What a waste of time that argument is.

      And why start off by saying that public libraries need more money? Who from? Who is going to pay more for a service that -overall at least - is rich and wasteful. How many times do we have to go over this ground before the officials who have obviously advised Andrew Motion learn to get the story right?

Sun, 20 Jul 2008
  • ~Ministers, shadow ministers and civil servants

    • Over the decade during which this blog has followed and described the decline in use of the UK public library service we have avoided extrapolating from the very particular issues of libraries into wider comment about civil administration of the country. I have analysed the detailed performance both in figures and in documents so that when I write about libraries I try to be as informed as I can be - and am happy to stand by anything that I say, because it is based on fact.

      However there are important observations about the wider landscape that can be made with justification. The first is the extraordinarily poor performance of ministers and shadow ministers in the conduct of their duties. We have watched over 10 years a whole succession of ill- trained, unwise, arrogant people who have been given the exhalted role of Minister, or Secretary of State. Within the government there has not been one who commanded any respect or who had any understanding of the leadership which is expected of them.

      The second is the low standard of management operated by high grade civil servants, officials of quangoes and senior local government officers. Among the hundreds that one has watched in operation a mere handful earn any kind of respect for ability and sagacity.The national press who watch these matters do not focus sufficiently upon the power exercised by these people and the poverty of their work. There should be much more naming and shaming of senior state employees than there is. Until there is an improvement the country will remain an economic mess, dependent on technical windfalls, as unpredictable and elusive as the lottery.

      We need a Government who will place fundamental reform of public sector structures and management at the top of their agenda

      And by the way one person of ministerial standing who has impressed during this time is Mark Field, MP for Westminster, who was dropped from the Conservative front bench team after some very good work. That was a shame and a mistake that should, in my view, be corrected. He was analytical, correct and courageous. We need him back and more like him. Another good and effective MP is Michael Fallon. He, also. undertook his duties with impressive ability.

These libraries were selected from hundreds of nominations
Click here for map

Z.J. Loussac Library, Anchorage, AK
Birmingham Public Library, Birmingham, AL
Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library, Montgomery, AL
Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library, Eureka Springs, AR
Phoenix Public Library, Desert Broom Branch Library, Cave Creek, AZ
Glendale Public Library, Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale, CA
Bayliss Library, Glenn, CA
County of Los Angeles Public Library, East Los Angeles Library, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Public Library, Central Library, Los Angeles, CA
Ventura County Library, Ojai Library, Ojai, CA
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, San Jose, CA
Boulder Public Library, Boulder, CO
Denver Public Library, Central Library, Denver, CO
Howard Whittemore Memorial Library, Naugatuck, CT
Norfolk Library, Norfolk, CT
Brockway Memorial Library, Miami Shores, FL
Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library, West Tampa Library, Tampa, FL
Athens-Clarke County Library, Athens Regional Library, Athens, GA
Honokaa Pubilc Library, Honokaa, HI
Carnegie-Stout Public Library, Dubuque, IA
Batavia Public Library, Batavia, IL
Ida Public Library, Belvidere, IL
Rock Island Public Library, Rock Island, IL
Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Oaklyn Branch, Evansville, IN
Ohio Township Public Library System, Central Library , Newburgh, IN
Johnson County Library, Central Resource Library, Shawnee Mission, KS
Lexington Public Library, Village Branch, Lexington, KY
New Orleans Public Library, Milton H. Latter Memorial Branch, New Orleans, LA
Sturgis Library, Barnstable, MA
Boston Public Library, Central Library, Boston, MA
Public Library of Brookline, Brookline, MA
North Adams Public Library, North Adams, MA
Harford County Public Library, Abingdon Branch, Belcamp, MD
Camden Public Library, Camden, ME
Clinton-Macomb Public Library, Clinton Township, MI
Howell Carnegie District Library, Howell, MI
Southfield Public Library, Southfield, MI
West Bloomfield Township Public Library, W. Bloomfield, MI
Brookdale Area Resource Library, Brooklyn Center, MN
St. Paul Public Library, St. Anthony Park Branch Library, St. Paul, MN
Barry Lawrence Regional Library, Pierce City Branch, Pierce CIty, MO
Sedalia Public Library, Sedalia, MO
Library of Hattiesburg, Petal, and Forrest County, Hattiesburg, MS
Darby Community Public Library, Darby, MT
Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library, Bismarck, ND
Laconia Public Library, Laconia, NH
Princeton Public Library, Princeton, NJ
Ocean County Library, Toms River Branch, Toms River, NJ
Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System, Ernie Pyle Branch Library, Albuquerque, NM
Aztec Public Library, Aztec, NM
Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Wolfville Memorial Library Branch, Wolfville, NS
Northwest Reno Library, Reno, NV
Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY
Queens Library System, Flushing Branch Library, Flushing, NY
Highland Falls Library, Highland Falls, NY
Utica Public Library, Utica, NY
Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Corryville Branch, Cincinnati, OH
Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Poland Branch, Youngstown, OH
Grace M. Pickens Public Library, Holdenville, OK
Toronto Public Library, Runnymeade Branch, Toronto, ON
Multnomah County Library, Central Library, Portland, OR
Darby Free Library, Darby, PA
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main Branch, Pittsburgh, PA
Warren Public Library, Warren, PA
Westmount Public Library, Westmount, QC
Barrington Public Library, Barrington, RI
Regina Public Library, Regina, SK
Memphis Public Library and Information Center, Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, Memphis, TN
Thomas Hughes Public Library, Rugby, TN
Westbank Community Library, Austin, TX
Cross Plains Public Library, Cross Plains, TX
Houston Public Library, Julia Ideson Building, Houston, TX
Round Rock Public Library, Round Rock, TX
Orem Public Library, Orem, UT
Salt Lake CIty Public Library, The City Library, Salt Lake City, UT
Newport News Public Library System, West Avenue Library, Newport News, VA
Norman Williams Public Library, Woodstock, VT
Bainbridge Public Library, Bainbridge Island, WA
Everett Public Library, Everett, WA
Seattle Public Library, Ballard Branch, Seattle, WA
Lake Geneva Public Library, Lake Geneva, WI
T. B. Scott Free Library, Merrill, WI
Cabell County Public Library, Huntington, WV
Shepherdstown Public Library, Shepherdstown, WV


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