If we've been quiet at CoatesWatch, it's because we've been very busy. We were thrilled when we saw that Tim is asking councils to give him a library to run. This is our big chance. He'll be recruiting porters, cleaners, library assistants, reference librarians, music librarians, children's librarians, cataloguers, inter-library loans assistants, electronic resource managers, a systems manager, and someone to pour saucers of milk for that flea-ridden moggie. In the CoatesWatch team we have many of these skills and more besides. Our cvs are up to date and we've all had hair-cuts. When can we start?
Like to see a cartoon of what is really happening? Here is a link [please view in Explorer] :
ReplyDeletewww.friendsofoldtownlibrary.co.uk/SaveOTLibraryHomeCartoon.htm
Thanks Shirley. Very good. Gilray? Martin Rowson?
ReplyDeleteBut not sure about your insistence on IE. I hope you have nothing against more open browsers?
ReplyDeleteMy website is home-made and in other browsers the thing goes pear-shaped; that's all; nothing sinister.
ReplyDeleteYou need to focus your energies away from T Coates and onto the coalition government. Read the item below :
ReplyDeleteAssociated Press : 14th November
Calls for Public Sector Sell-Off
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gnCBH12H9zWqyfv0aurBlmh-o2Xg?docId=N0061411289750025362A
We know your admiration for Tim, Shirley, but see the Gloucestershire campaigners for a slightly different take:
ReplyDeletehttp://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/extraordinary-meeting-called/
You'll need to go down the comments.
We're not so sure that Tim is the ConDem's enemy and the public library's friend. Some of his pronouncements make us think the opposite.
I think he will try to save libraries by whatever means possible and does not give a toss for party politics. Campaigners have to engage with the people in power, Hodge/Vaizey and others, as well as with their mates, otherwise they get nowhere. And it is often a very thankless task. People who are fighting to turn back the tide of closures will sup with the devil, if it means community libraries for the millions of people who depend on them. Things will be said that are provocative, purposely, to stir things up and shake people's complacency -- to get them to re-examine their mindset. My gut feeling is that councillors and officers should not be babied; they are big enough and ugly enough to be able to listen to Tim or anyone else who thinks they have some answers. Talking is better than crying into your beer. There is also a point that, in the end, the library service does not exist for the benefit of Librarians. Many of you would agree with that view -- and it is unfortunate that for one reason or another some feel that they
ReplyDeletemust shelter behind fortifications and never come out to engage with the scary world, meet the big bad wolf and get over themselves.
But suppose, Shirley, he actually means what he says about closing a third of libraries? I know it's comforting to think that it's a ploy, but suppose it isn't?
ReplyDeleteAs for engaging with the real world, several of the CoatesWatch team were fighting for library services when Tim was on the Waterstones juggernaut driving independent booksellers out of business.
Of course the library service does not exist for the benefit of librarians. Have you ever heard anyone, from Callimachus onwards, argue that it did?