"People would be able to chat, drink coffee and watch videos in English libraries under a new government proposal, The Independent has learnt. Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, will today launch a consultation on changing the face of libraries which he believes are out of touch.
Under the proposals, libraries could install coffee franchises, book shops and film centres. Noise bans will also be reviewed. Mr Burnham will tell the Public Library Authorities conference in Liverpool that libraries must "look beyond the bookcase and not sleepwalk into the era of the e-book"."
You can read more in today's Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sombre-libraries-need-chatter-and-coffee-shops-minister-says-955493.html
How can people get it so wrong? Don't they realise that there are already so many voices in the library - and that is why you have to be so quiet to hear them speaking on the page.
That scene in Wenders' 'Wings of Desire' comes to mind.
2 comments:
Spot on, Mr C. This is a kind of insane cultural vandalism. Tsk.
W
PS Sorry for absence -- I too have had a cold & still don't feel great. Incidentally, I've been wondering how you got on with The Wire. I suspect it wasn't for you & you politely dropped the subject! Liked the poems btw.
"Season of sniffs and pillowed flu' fulness" - or something like that?
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This library proposal seems to me yet further evidence of a horrible trend in British 'culture': the erosion of public space. Every inch now has to be transformed into a consumer nexus. You have to buy something to justify being there.
Next: park benches & fresh air.
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re. The Wire. I saw episode one and then days went by & I had to return the DVD. I can't say I was eager to see more - but knowing my odd habits of redicovery it wouldn't surprise me if - in a few months time - I'm suddenly scouring the shops here for box sets. Something will have triggered an interest.
My loss I am sure.
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re. the poems. Given very little else is going on in this direction I am catching these as and when they materialise - ususally between 5am and getting up. There's irritating stuff going on at school and it's occupying my mind far too much. Energy would be much better spent writing.
I don't know quite what they are - I suppose Mark Truscott's micro poems would be an influence.
Anyway, I'll let them come and then see whether they're asking to be put together somehow - or just run as one-a-page sequence.
OK.
Sunny morning here. Will the weather continue for the weekend?
Cheers
The C.
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