This is the final article in the series that was originally inspired by a comment made by Terry Pratchett and contains some recycled and enhanced material from a thread on the old Conservative Conspiracy Forum.
I visited my local library recently for the first time in many months. The rules have been relaxed: there was no doorkeeper making sure that people wore masks and used the hand sanitiser and no requirement to leave contact details.
I noticed some changes: the coffee machine has gone, where there were three machines for scanning borrowed and returned books and paying fees there is now only one, and the trolley where reserved books wait to be picked up was almost empty. These are not good signs. It could be that it will take a few more weeks before demand is back to what it was before the COVID virus appeared, or it could be that things will never be the same.
What will happen to this and other libraries in the future?
I have seen a lot of information and many discussions about library-associated issues online.
Having to live without many library services because of the COVID restrictions has provided a further reason for both dedicated library suporters and critics of the system to publish and reassess their views on topics such as the value or otherwise of public libraries to the community, the alarming number of closures – and not just barely-used rural branches - for budgetary reasons, how libraries could adapt to changes in society and whether or not they should still be publicly funded.
I have already mentioned some specific criticisms of public libraries. Many of the general objections in the old discussion thread were based on politics and principles.
Some members thought that library services should not be free, that there are better and higher-priority uses for taxpayers' money, and in any case there are better options available for people who want books to read:
“...people don't need libraries, they need communal spaces where they can build relationships with others in the community.”
Why not have both? Anyway, some people enjoy reading much more than they do spending a lot of time with people!
“It's also important to bear in mind that I'm not denigrating reading books at all; I'm merely criticising the ideas that a) having free access to books is a right; and b) it really makes a marked difference in anyone's life. If local governments want to run libraries, fine, but make them pay for themselves, with subscription fees. I don't particularly want to pay money into non-essential propaganda services.”
There is plenty of evidence that libraries do change people's lives!
In my – biased – opinion, the supporters of public libraries make a much better case for their cause than the antis do.
Another critic had this to say:
“I think a far superior alternative to libraries are used book stores (charity shops, too, often sell old books), where the books are extremely cheap. I went into one a few months ago, after I'd just moved house and didn't have an internet connection yet, and picked up five books for £1...”
I mentioned using other options when covering the years when I made little or no use of public libraries. I found many low-priced treasures in charity shops and second-hand book shops, but I eventually donated most of them from lack of space.
The ideal option for someone who does a lot of reading and research is to have all books of interest available for frequent reference and immediate access at home. I used to have a dream in which I had a big library of my own, with floor to ceiling shelves and glass doors leading into a beautiful garden! It would have a huge fiction section and an even larger collection of non-fiction books. This remained a dream for me, but Isaac Asimov had his own reference library. He say in his memoirs that it consisted of around 2,000 books.
I see public libraries as the next best option when it comes to books that are frequently re-read and referred to. In addition to my local lending library, there is a reference library with specialist collections and reading rooms. And after all, reading paper books is less damaging to the eyes and more rewarding than reading on a screen, and it may be better for the environment if people share paper books rather than everyone buying their own copies.
The view of one of the antis on the old forum:
“So why are liberals so obsessed with library closures?
Honestly, the weeping and wailing in my local area over the library being closed down is absolutely ridiculous; grown adults nearly in tears because it's being shut down. It's the same nationwide; if you go on Facebook, you'll see people sharing posts and memes to the effect of library closures being the most nefarious, heinous evil ever committed against mankind. It's ridiculously disproportionate.”
It may be a disproportionate reaction for people with many other options, but, as the example from Cornwall shows, for some people a lifeline is being cut.
Neil Gaiman was also quoted in the first library article. He is very much in favour of public libraries. Here is some more material from the excellent talk that he gave in 2013:
“Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information…
We have an obligation to support libraries. To use libraries, to encourage others to use libraries, to protest the closure of libraries. If you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or wisdom. You are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future…”
www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming
One member of the old forum said that Neil Gaiman was talking garbage; I agree with everything that he says in his lecture.
I think that libraries still have a role to play even though the golden age is long gone, the glory days when they were one of the great cornerstones of civilisation and transformed people's lives may be over, the Internet has changed everything and the long-term effects of the coronavirus on Britain's public libraries have yet to be seen.
Travelling through east London, I have seen that some public libraries have changed with the times: they are now integrated with adult and community education services and presented as Idea Stores and Community Hubs. They can be thought of as the fourth wave or incarnation of public libraries. Visitor numbers and usage levels have increased, which is very encouraging.
The expected huge rise in fuel costs may have the effect of getting people back into libraries to save on their utility bills by using free facilities such as heating, lighting and WiFi. However, the libraries' – and other public services' – energy bills will increase too. It will take a while to how this all works out.
Costs aside, I think that there still is, and will be for many years to come, a place for free public libraries.
I intend to get as many books as possible from my local library, both for my own benefit and to help support them. I will use alternative sources only when my library does not stock a book I want or if the lockdowns return.
It is a pity though that my nearest branch is not a Carnegie library like this fine specimen, the Victoria Library in Buckingham Palace Road in London:
