The Word Cloud

Frank Skinner has written a piece in the Times saying that local libraries are full of Mills and Boons and large print books from which you can catch diseases and therefore are hardly worth saving. I can't link to it because it is in the subscription part of the paper but the whole attitude of it makes me cross. Now my local library is a bit short of books but it's full of all sorts of people using it for many different things and I'll take to the streets if anyone proposes closing it. Many people on small incomes can't afford to buy enough books to read and libraries provide other vital services such as internet access.

My little one (nine months) has just joined the library and we've been three times now for him to explore the books and borrow some new ones. I'd discovered much more about what kinds of books he's most interested in and have bought some books as a result. Should publishers do more to support libraries?

Central Library in Portsmouth was vandalised a few weeks ago and there has been extensive water damage to the building and the stock. It will be closed for another couple of months until all the repairs have been carried out. In the interim, the branch libraries are coping wonderfully in picking up the flack. I didn't know about this - been in Spain for a month - until I bimbled along yesterday to return mine, hubby's and the kids' summer reads. None of us had borrowed any Mills and Boons or large print books - although the large printers may well be looming for me as I have restricted vision following cataract surgery and am rapidly turning into Mrs Magoo!

Portsmouth City Council have purchased two of the old Woolworth stores and are in the process of converting them into branch libraries with coffee shops and community resource rooms on them. That's going to be my writing haunt when the house gets too lonely and I need a bit of 'buzz' to get me going again. There's great excitement here about their plans.

Libraries are alive and kicking here in Pompey - perhaps Frank would like to pop down from Stoke and have a look?

Forgot to say - I'm looking for a copy of Paul Eluard's 'Immaculate Conception' - a surrealist poetry collection. It's out of print - some second hand copies are available on Amazon for £26. I took the ISBN into the branch library. They're getting hold of a copy for me. It's not in large print, either, and doesn't contain any swooning women.

Whoops, sorry Kate, I think I may have killed your blog.

Nine months? Kate, you've given birth to a genius!

I don't really understand Frank Skinner these days, but I know he's not really very funny. Last time I tried to watch him, the combination of his strange face and his fixation on the scatological was just... unpleasant. I want to like him, because he comes from the same part of the world as me, but I can't. And anyway, it's not as if he's any sort of authority on public services. Football and fart jokes - those are his areas of expertise.

Library stock. increasingly, tends to reflect the reading habits of the local population. If lots of people read 'Mills and Boon' then lots of 'Mills and Boon' novels will fill the shelves.

Long live libraries! Luckily, I have access to both Cambridgeshire and Suffolk libraries and would not be without them for the world. (Actually, worked part-time in one of them many years ago).

Even though the libraries in both counties have become 'cyber-libraries', with internet access points etc., books still dominate and there are bright, welcoming children's areas, with 'story time' sessions and also Summer holiday reading competitions to encourage slightly older children.

I am sure your nine month old will gain in many ways from his library membership, Kate. I agree, it is never too early to introduce a baby to the wonderful world of books! Shared reading times, with baby sitting on your lap are so valuable and provide future memories to treasure.

I agree with the general feeling that libraries should be treasured. I certainly treasure my local library, even though it's recently been merged with the local post office and local council offices which makes it noisy, distracting and staffed by librarians who look as though they periodically hide in cupboards to tear their hair out. I would struggle to write my non-fiction books without borrowing numerous library books for reference. If I had to buy all the reference books I use the cost of those alone would swallow up the advances I get.

It now likely that many libraries will close. It is also likely that 'printed' books will go the same way as vinyl records. (An expensive luxury for the well-heeled.)

Most of these posts were made last year and I'm interested to know, after the recent close of the financial year, whether people have seen many changes in local provision? There was such an uproar over ConDem cuts and the closing of libraries. Have people started to see the effects of this?

The thing about Frank Skinner is that he's a comedian. Like him or not, his remit is to 'entertain'. Papers often take them on because they have cult-like followings, but to expect them to speak eloquently on matters of politics, and to remain uncontroversial, is, I think, fault on behalf of the reader ;) Satire is what it is.

As for publishers actively investing in supporting libraries - what's in it for them? From a business stance? I'm not saying they shouldn't, I'm just considering - given the plaintive cries of many of their accountants - what the incentive would be? Support a system that encourages people not to buy books? Can't see that happening myself.

It is also likely that 'printed' books will go the same way as vinyl records.

Oh how dramatic ;) Vinyl was replaced with perfectly affordable CDs that anyone can copy and re-mix. Nobody could rip a vinyl at home. And as for books, rewind a hundred and fifty years and many people couldn't read them, yet alone afford them in between the work house and shovelling coal. Now you can pick up almost any title you like second hand on Amazon for under a fiver. All new releases eventually end up there. To suggest there was ever a golden era of publishing where choice was more plentiful than it is today, and everybody could afford books - I just don't buy that argument at all.

There was an interesting documentary about libraries as they were closing them down. At one point they said something to the effect that libraries serve certain times in life. They are largely for the young and the old. For families with children - as illustrated above - and for retirees with time on their hands, who enjoy reading. Most of the time those with a good income are too busy to go, and wealthy enough to buy. That's the Amazon crowd. So trying to get 'everyone' to use libraries more is a futile business. But they will always have the staple core of young and old through every generation. Perhaps explaining the large print and audio book sections ;)

Like Spangles, I would never have completed my degrees without university libraries. Reference books on non-fiction are horrendously expensive, and many old documents aren't in print. Knowing that there is a place you can go, give a title or an ISBN, and have that item delivered, is an invaluable resource. Although, according to the Wiki article: Decline of library usage, academic libraries are the hardest hit by the digital era. At least in the US, and, I strongly suspect, the UK.

"In 1979, about two and a half times as many books were loaned than were purchased in the UK. As of 2005, the number is about even."

In the UK, the National Literacy Trust produces some interesting reports. They currently have one on Public Libraries and Literacy: Young people’s reading habits and attitudes to public libraries, and an exploration of the relationship between public library use and school attainment - Little light reading for anyone interested in the subject.

With less government funding, libraries - like charitable organisations - now have to operate more like businesses to make up for the shortfall. Those that manage this stay open, those that can't, don't. It's the wonder of capitalism - and hey, we're all in it together, this wonderful Big Society ;)

I see library borrowing in terms of the benefits to publishers from a different perspective. I think many people have borrowed a book and liked it so much that they had to buy it, followed by lots of other books by that author. This happens to me so often that I've lost count. It also happens to my husband (sometimes it sparks a whole new enthusiasm, with many new books to read), and it used to happen to my mother when she was alive. We can't be the only three people for whom this has happened.

The cost of non-fiction books is escalating. Someone is requesting books on medieval warfare and the cost of these books range from £100 t0 £150. For one of the requests, the library supplier reported that only an electronic source is available - though Amazon can provide a printed copy at £122 and COPAC indicates academic libraries that hold a copy - though COPAC does not indicate if the copy is electronic.

I think many people have borrowed a book and liked it so much that they had to buy it, followed by lots of other books by that author.

I hear what you're saying, but in order for the publishing industry to 'support' libraries, we first need to figure out how they will have an impact, and what type of support we're talking about. Direct financial investment? PR and advertising (also requiring financial investment)...any which way you look at 'support', it usually comes with a price tag.

People recommending books to friends that they have bought on Amazon, Kindle or from a second-hand shop are likely to far outstrip the handful of borrowers who decide to buy the books they found in the library. It'd make an interesting qualitative study. On the whole, most people use the library to read books so that they don't have to buy them. If they then buy one or two new, having read them, it's going to be far fewer than the number of people who bought books having used Amazon's 'look inside' function.

As with any business, they've got to decide where their money will make the most impact. Word of mouth is indeed a huge factor in books sales, but it's also one that's quite hard to quantify at present, and business decisions require hard evidence.

Mike - depends a lot on what you class as non-fiction though. The Encyclopaedia of Origami is currently available for £7.69 new on Amazon. Less than the price of most novels.

When I was training as an interpreter I was regularly forking out £15-30 for specialist manuals and studies. During my Masters I desperately wanted my Forensic Linguistic tutor's work on the language of cross-examination, but at £90 there wasn't a chance I was paying for it, so I borrowed it from the library. But whereas his initial work on Forensic Discourse retailed at £75, it's now available for around £25. Thanks again, Amazon. Plus students are always hawking their books to the next generation for half the price.

Academia has always been expensive and, again, I'd say that Amazon and the second-hand market has made it far more possible today than ever before for people to own a copy of an academic work. The reason they're expensive is generally because they're intended for a fairly limited readership, and also as library stock. Which is now becoming online stock. As a former student, I know that I could never have pulled off half the papers I did without access to online academic resources and title databases. It's revolutionised the way we study - and, to my mind - for the better, in the sense of 'freedom of access to information'.

I don't think books are in danger of dying out just yet, to be honest. In a small survey of friends I recently did whilst deciding whether to go Kindle with a book, they all came back saying that they preferred paper over e-format, even if it wasn't the cheapest option. That's encouraging. And, if statistics from 2007 are to be believed (will probably make another post on this actually):

"Brits bought an estimated 338 million books, at a cost of £2,478m. This was 13% higher by both volume and value than five years ago, according to the Book Marketing Limited's latest Books and the Consumer survey."

And an American study by the Book Industry Study Group reckoned there was an estimated $14.2 billion aggregate turnover from small publishers who weren't being counted under the mainstream book sales listings. So more books being sold than originally estimated.

Often our personal perspective of a sales situation isn't always what's going on in reality. It's actually extremely hard to get solid figures in competitive conglomerate industries such as this. There's always hidden figures, cut losses and sales under the radar. Plus a lack of incentive to honestly account for sales in the public domain.

As for the penny press, yes - it made certain forms of literature widely available. The early years provided little variety and low distribution, because of low literacy levels and the expense of hand-made or, eventually, printed materials. Penny press predominantly distributed horror and news. It was very limiting in genre and in style. Taking into account inflation, you can now buy second-hand Jane Austen online for less than that. today we have variety from all over the world at prices in line with people's income, or at least with GDP.

Vinyl is indeed very interesting. I love it myself - have some old Glenn Miller stashed away somewhere. But would it really be so interesting if everyone were still using it, or is it its rarity that makes it so?

'The Penny Press' began by providing educational material. See Charles Knight and the' Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge. '

I honestly think that Librarys are to be treasured as valuable assets. When I was young my parents always took me to the library to borrow books, we would go every other week, even when we moved we always used the library, now as digital technology advanced Library's are still being used for books, academa and EBooks and EJournals which I had to use during my university course. If it wasn't for the libary adding Journals and Ebooks I would not have been able to afford the academic books.

I think that Library's will not close bacause they are offering free short courses on computers, net and accounting which are popular, and to use the internet at the library free of charge makes it easier for those who can not afford broadband.

Let's not forget that libraries also provide access to music. I recall my first ever membership of a music dept in the days of vynil. The music librarian only accepted members who brought in their stylus for inspection. It had to be the new 'stereo' type.
Ordinary borrowers couldn't take books if they failed a 'clean hands' test.

I remember as a kid me and dad used to borrow computer games from the library- in particular Myst, which is one of the most beutiful games I have ever played.

And tape stories! Oh, so many tapes stories.
I don't use libraries that much any more (except for academic books) since my spare reading time is generally spent on the cloud- but I do believe that libraries are an invaluable resource. Most of the local libraries I've visited lately have managed to keep fairly up with the times- containing books for a wide variety of ages, computer access, a nice ambiance (I mean seriously, they're just nice places to hang out it). Heck, half of them evn contain little cafes, thus parents hang out and chat while kids go off and find books.