
The vandals destroying libraries should have the book thrown at them - Tomte
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/13/vandals-destroying-libraries-should-have-book-thrown-at-them
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djaychela
I live in the UK, have done my entire life, and have also been an intermitted
user of libraries throughout my life - often at points when I couldn't afford
the books I wanted to buy (particularly when I was a student).

I love books. I always have done, and most of my Christmas presents this year
have been books (only 3, but you get the point). They are so incredibly
important for opening up the vistas of thought and imagination that are
available to you, that I don't think it can be overstated. And the UK
government has been on a course of destroying libraries and a wide range of
other cultural and societal infrastructure that it can't be overstated how
scary this is.

Gove was responsible for stripping out a great deal of the syllabus in the UK
- support for 'meaningless' subjects such as music, and music technology which
I used to teach until the funding was removed from schools and it fell by the
wayside for most schools as it was too expensive to keep going once equipment
needed to be replaced. He is a man who feels he is an expert in every area,
despite being anything but. Others in the government seem to be much the same,
not seeing the point in anything they can't personally profit from.

Many of the subjects that are now struggling aren't public interest, and I
wasn't too surprised. But this will destroy any chance that a generation will
have to have access to the many-faceted wonders that a library can provide.
The UK is sleep-walking into a desolate, dystopian future where knowledge is
derided in favour of three-word soundbites and self-interest. The BBC will
fall foul of the government once Brexit is out of the way, with all that
brings.

I'm 48, and I can't remember any other time where I've actually despaired
about the future for my (step) kids, and where I've felt that the government
really is out of control. The way that the last election went was a damning
indictment of the (pathetic) opposition in this country, and Johnson and his
cronies (such as Gove) now have carte blanche to do as they please. By the
time they are finished, so much structural damage will have been done to this
country's institutions I think it will be next to impossible to repair what's
been done, even if there is the political will to do anything about it.

~~~
sandworm101
>> I'm 48, and I can't remember any other time where I've actually despaired
about the future for my (step) kids, and where I've felt that the government
really is out of control.

That is said by every generation. Every generation going back hundreds of
years. In the 1950s, the glory time for today's elderly, comic books we the
craze. A hundred years before that doctors would regularly tell people not to
read as it could cause illness, especially in women. Some thought chess
angered the blood. But they all drank and took opium with abandon. Today
doctors tell kids to reduce screen time, while loading them up with ADHD meds.
Nothing changes.

The definition of "old" is when you start lecturing on how young people were
so much better in your generation. It's just nostalgia. Old people forget the
evils of the past and see new evils everywhere in the present.

~~~
incompleteness
Everything changes, yet nothing is new under the sun.

------
kmlx
i found this article to be very poor. instead of trying to formulate an
argument for why libraries should be kept open, it lashes out in some petty
political scoring.

my opinion is that the age of the library has ended. the library model is from
a bygone age. it's role has been taken over by the internet. and any other
features (such as events etc) have been nullified by changes in society. this
is backed up by extremely reduced numbers of borrowers (and falling) and the
incredible growth rate of the internet, and especially mobile as a whole. the
digital disenfranchised have the same issue as the people who couldn't read
and write back when libraries were one of the main the sources of knowledge.
the difference today is that the price to access the internet has never been
lower, will continue getting lower, and the benefits of the internet massively
outweigh any nostalgic dreams about libraries.

there will still be libraries, but i don't foresee anything other than a
continued decline until a more sustainable model is found. even then, i don't
think another age of the libraries would be back anytime soon.

~~~
nerpderp82
You are wrong, libraries are extremely important and provide access to both
books and the internet for many many folks. They are a cultural, social and
intellectual nexus. The thinking that libraries are outmoded because we have
the web is short sighted.

This is article is outlining the destruction of the libraries in the UK by the
conservative government, an educated and engaged population is a cure for the
right. This is the same reason we have a war on education in the US, to make
more right wing voters.

> Because nobody has worked as doggedly to this end, as unsentimentally, and
> with a greater commitment to the suppression of literacy, than our own
> Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

~~~
daemonk
I think he was referring specifically to their traditional function as a
repository of information. I think in that regard, libraries are outmoded.

Of course they have been and can be transformed to perform other important
community functions.

~~~
yborg
They are not outmoded for this function, which is the function of a repository
of information free to all citizens. They are critical for it, and they are
giving up on it, by and large, thanks to the current generation of
professional librarians.

What is described in the article is also happening in the US, and over the
last 15 years the public library has largely ceased to be a repository for
information or even a kiosk to access information, which would be it's primary
modern function. It has become a place to deliver entertainment, and even more
importantly to warehouse children of working parents and in some areas,
homeless people. These are perhaps useful and important functions, but not a
primary rationale for a library. But in order to perform these functions, the
libraries have eliminated ... the books.

And I don't just mean the physical books, and most of the suburban libraries
around here have eliminated by my estimate at least half of their physical
collections, both in books and media, largely to open floor space for lounge
areas. These books in many cases are now just _gone_. They aren't available to
read digitally either - because libraries are largely outsourcing the whole
'content' thing to for-profit companies that essentially lease books for
access by libraries at ridiculous prices. And you'll get what they consider
profitable, which is largely content that is ... entertainment.

One of the great functions of the "old" library was access to out-of-print
material. This is now largely gone, and because it is out of print, you won't
find it in digital distribution, either. And obscure or unpopular material
that formerly could be found in a library you now must buy, at a high price
because of low individual interest.

I believe that the public library was one of the great democratic institutions
in the US, not just because it afforded access to information, but as a place
where everyone, rich and poor, would go and have the same right to borrow a
book. The only sliver of hope I see here is that most libraries still seem to
have large children's sections and it warms my heart to see parents still
taking little ones to the library. It's one of the small rituals that help to
produce a civil society and one that I fear will eventually be privatized as
well.

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prvc
"Vandals", being the politicians cutting back funding, not actual library
vandals.

~~~
teh_klev
I'm fairly certain the calibre of reader here is able to make that distinction
without it being pointed out. Or they could read the article to find out.

~~~
desertrider12
Sure, but it's a misleading/clickbait title.

------
rjkennedy98
"Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport". Just the name makes you
cringe. Digital, Media, and Sport is what a library is about avoiding. Its
about deep thinking and healing through reading, not the mindless pleasure of
the screen. How did these technocrats get in charge of such a precious
institution?

~~~
incompleteness
The upside I see is illegal online "libraries", which are free public printing
presses.

It's a revolution that went quite unseen, thanks to the copyright lobby's
persistent noise about copied videotapes and bootlegging.

May good health find their operaters, and may the next Library of Alexandria
make it to the heat death of the universe.

