Accrington author laments state of libraries
11:22am Sunday 29th August 2010 in
-
- By David Watkinson » Deputy news editor
A BESTSELLING Accrington author has slammed facilities at libraries in Lancashire as ‘failing the children of today’.
Jeanette Winterson, who wrote Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, said she was shocked that on a recent visit to Accrington library many books had been replaced with DVDs.
Last year a restructure of the library’s services by Lancashire County Council saw the reference book section removed and replaced with an online database.
Speaking at the Edinburgh international book festival Ms Winterson, who grew up in Accrington, said that as a young girl she would escape to the town’s library where she would work her way through the classics.
She said: “I would start at A and read Jane Austen and move to B and read the Brontës and go on from there.
“But on a recent visit DVDs had replaced many of the books. I am concerned about the formative reading experiences of children with little other access to books than through a library.
"What worries me is that a load of rubbish has been talked about digitisation as being the new Gutenberg, but the fact is that Gutenberg led to books being put in shelves, and digitisation is taking books off shelves.
"If you start taking books off shelves then you are only going to find what you are looking for, which does not help those who do not know what they are looking for."
She also spoke of her concern for the future of libraries themselves, as the new government looks to make cuts in spending across the board.
Lancashire County Council said the most popular books remained at Accrington while some ‘important materials’ would be kept as county-wide loans available on request.
It described the changes at Accrington as 'modernising services', but Hyndburn Council leader Coun Peter Britcliffe criticised the move.
Coun Britcliffe said Accrington Library should be treated as a central one.
“Many people feel that a library without a reference section is a sandwich without a filling,” he said.
Comments(8)
gibbons
says...
10:26pm Sun 29 Aug 10
Maybe in a few years time when everyone is computer literate or read books on a machine then it may work but the Lancashire Library Service are actually depriving many people of the services they want and more importantly what they pay the council tax for.
Centaur
says...
9:50am Mon 30 Aug 10
Thanks Jeanette for raising this very important issue. Our children will be the worse off fo the demise of the library.
wilkinp4
says...
10:25am Mon 30 Aug 10
It is a sign of our times that this is happening, and the libraries do not know how to keep up or compete with "Home users". All the information is now online and computers are now in many homes with fast access internet.
How do you compete with that?
britguy
says...
11:38am Mon 30 Aug 10
It may seem a good idea by the libraries to follow the flow of modern trends but do they ever consider anything further than cost or being cool ( cool being a word I detest to describe anything other than something of low temperature ).
There is no great pleasure to be had reading a book from a computer screen and I dread to think what, if any lasting damage it will do to the eyes.
I only stopped using libraries because of the cost of parking the car and having forever to look at the time to ensure I dont get a ticket or clamped.
A library is not a place where life is to be rushed.
The is great pleasure to be had from reading a book. I do it at home and instead of the discomfort of staring at a computer screen I curl up with a good book and maybe a nice cup of tea and indulge in the pleasure of reading a good story. Actually holding the book is a pleasure not to be had on a computer screen. The latest idea of storing hundreds of books on some electrical gadget with an eye straining screen is awful and gone is the pleasure that comes from seeing shelves stacked with books. I miss the musty smell and silence of the old library days when even a sniffle would draw disapproving looks.
Sadly one of my grandsons recently had great pleasure in showing me his newest gadget, his new latest iphone. At 14 years old and pretty well educated his greatest delight was in showing me all the "apps" he could use and mostly the games he could play on it.
Libraries I am afraid will become a thing of the past, mainly to be replaced with defective eye sight and tenosynovitis
Izanears
says...
4:57pm Mon 30 Aug 10
The self service check out system is a licence to thieve and heaven only knows how they collect fines for overdue books.
All in all it is a shambles.
wilkinp4
says...
9:04pm Mon 30 Aug 10
And yes, my eyesight is now going, and Im not going to say my age! LOL.
BuckoTheMoose
says...
2:17pm Tue 31 Aug 10
I still used Darwen library and it is quite good. There are DVDs etc, but the main theme is still the books.
More News stories
- Queen to visit Burnley and Accrington
- Tributes to Chorley man killed on M6
- Lancaster Bomber navigator dies aged 89
- Young Chorley driver killed two teenage girls, court heard
- Padiham violent brothers both jailed for attacks
- Accrington £5m care centre opens at Springhill Care Home
- East Lancashire gang jailed for 30 years in total after two violent attacks
- Burnley FC chairman Barry Kilby reveals he is fighting cancer
- Blackburn College University Centre boss resigns after suspension
- Darwen ‘cowboy builder’ in £23,000 OAP fraud charge agrees payback
HARD-HITTING: Accrington Library, whose switch to more ‘digitised’ provision
SHOCKED: Author Jeanette Winterson
Most popular
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
sonsdad says...
5:07pm Sun 29 Aug 10