Splinters

A recent report from the BBC about the closure of libraries in Britain is no great shock. It merely follows on from many other news items showing this is the way the wind blows. Closures North, and South . It may not shock, but it does appal. I personally believe this to be an utter, shameful disgrace. But is this mere sentiment as the hard-headed realists would have us believe? Am I being as fogeyish as someone who hankers after farthings, groats, Beta-Max and vinyl?

The numbers using libraries has dropped in many cases, quite steeply. And the BBC report asks the key pointed question:- when did you last visit your local library? And the answer for me, book lover that I am, is not for ages. Over a year ago certainly. Banged to rights. So if someone who really likes books like me does not go to libraries , surely they are not needed! QED. This atomistic argument which has been used to justify the decimation of all manner of services ever since dear Margaret Hilda Roberts first reared her goat-like head strikes again, making some richer and society poorer. But this time Splinters readers, you should all care, as the very concept of knowledge as a free resource is at stake.

The fact is, I have finally managed to earn a fair wage now, I am busy with work and family, and I can buy whatever books I feel like. Terrific. Happily ever after eh? Except that just four years ago, desperate and on the dole, libraries were an absolute life-line to me. Similarly, when I was growing up, spending money on books would have been unthinkable. This is not a Monty Python Yorkshireman rant, I was in no way in poverty, and of course I could have bought books if that was what I really wanted. I could have done without the dope, cider and chocolate, and single-mindedly devoted myself to discovering the written word instead. But of course I very likely would not have. And for better or worse, I would have been a very different person now. The many people who visit libraries now, for whatever reason, would probably be different people now as well. And the fact alternative means of accessing facts, literature, everything that a library provides has meant that less people visit them, it does not make the service any less vital for those that do.

Even the most nasty-minded reactionary at least pays lip service these days to some idea of both social mobility, and some idea of knowledge for all. Just as important as that, more-so, is the chance to expand both knowledge and imagination, not by a great conscious decision but by just being allowed to drift into it. All three concepts are mercilessly crushed by the demolition of the public library.

There seems to be some utterly warped logic at work in the whole closure decisions that as internet use increases, libraries are less needed. The internet provides this free-space of knowledge now goes the argument. The exact opposite is the case. Huge numbers of people, over 40%, do not have access to the web on a home computer. Those that do may not have broadband and so limit their time accordingly. This is far from the free access to all that libraries provide. And yet libraries now have web and e-mail use, and as that access to these increasingly dictates how fully you are integrated into society, making sure the poorer off do not have this life-line to them is an even more retrograde step.

The threats to the public library are not just an assault on the concept of democratic knowledge, the free exchange of ideas and literature and thought, but a further move in ossifying the entrenched divisions in our society where social mobility is now decreasing. Gordon Brown take note, your (sic) government has pissed away gallons of good-will extracted from anyone of even the slightest progressive hue who once supported you with its privatising, fat-cat-licking, warmongering and general sleaze-baggery.

Once the grinning Borgia Ginz (watch Jubilee and you'll get it) is out on his arse you would do well to stop this one particular particular fetid trend to put some decent distance between you and Cool-Boy Cam. Give library funding a boost, and keep them all open, it will probably cost about a tenth of the wonderful Trident. There might, just might be one or two few votes in it if the Eton wanker looks like he might do too well. Literature, free at the point of delivery. People do care about this shit you know.

And you thought they were just places to go when you need a piss? There is that too... and why not? Meanwhile, here are some people who are doing something about it.